Risk factors for non-fusion segment disease after anterior cervical spondylosis surgery: a retrospective study with long-term follow-up of 171 patients

• Published in: Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research 2018-02, Vol.13 (1), p.27-27, Article 27
• Main Authors: Wang, Ziqiang, Zhou, Liangliang, Lin, Bin, Song, Keran, Niu, Qinghe, Ren, Dongfeng, Tang, Jiaguang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjacent segment disease; Anterior cervical arthrodesis; Arthrodesis; Care and treatment; Cervical spondylosis; Diagnosis; Kyphosis; Non-fusion segment disease; Patient outcomes; Physiological aspects; Regular; Spinal osteophytosis
• ISSN: 1749-799X; 1749-799X
• DOI: 10.1186/s13018-018-0717-1

The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence and causes of non-fusion segment disease (NFSD), both adjacent and non-adjacent to a fused segment, after anterior cervical arthrodesis. This is a single-center study. Between January 1998 and January 2011, two surgeons' 171 patients who had an anterior cervical decompression and fusion were followed clinically for more than 5 years. The correlation between the incidence of symptomatic non-fusion segment disease and the following clinical parameters (age at operation, fusion levels,) and radiological parameters (number of patients who had a plate, anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF) or corpectomies, preoperative and postoperative cervical spine alignment, Pavlov's ratio at the C5 level, and preoperative existence of a non-fusion segment degeneration on magnetic resonance imaging) was evaluated. Of the 171 patients reviewed, 16 patients had non-fusion segment disease (9.36%), of which 12 had adjacent segment disease and 4 had non-adjacent segment disease. Postoperative cervical lordosis in the non-fusion segment disease group was significantly smaller than that of the disease-free group (P