Skip corpectomy in surgical treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy

Abstract

To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of skip corpectomy in surgical treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy. The study included 7 patients with cervical myelopathy following extended cervical spine stenosis. All patients underwent skip corpectomy. Clinical examination included degree of neurological disorders according to the modified scale of the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) with assessment of recovery rate and Nurick score, as well as VAS score of pain syndrome. Verification of diagnosis was based on the data of spondylography, magnetic resonance and computed tomography. The indications for surgical treatment were conduction disorders and their spondylotic genesis confirmed by neuroimaging methods. Score of pain syndrome decreased by 2-4 points (mean 3.1) in long-term postoperative period. The JOA, Nurick scores and recovery rate (mean 42.5%) demonstrated significant improvement of neurological status in all patients. In all cases, the follow-up examination confirmed adequate decompression and spinal fusion. Skip corpectomy provides adequate spinal cord decompression in case of extended cervical spine stenosis and minimizes the risk of complications typical for multilevel corpectomy. Recovery rate indicates the effectiveness of this method in surgical treatment of cervical myelopathy caused by multilevel stenosis. However, further studies on sufficient clinical material are needed.