Journal of spinal disorders & techniques
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J Spinal Disord Tech · May 2009
Case ReportsCervical myelopathy accompanied with hypoplasia of the posterior arch of the atlas: case report.
Case reports of 2 patients having cervical myelopathy accompanied with idiopathic hypoplasia of the posterior arch of the atlas. ⋯ In the presence of congenital hypoplasia of the posterior arch of the atlas, the spinal cord is highly susceptible to injury because congenital spinal canal stenosis is present. Therefore, the presence of even a mild mechanical compressive lesion leads to myelopathy. Acquired mild atlantoaxial subluxation was associated with this hypoplasia, and the association was considered to be the mechanism underlying the occurrence of myelopathy in adulthood.
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J Spinal Disord Tech · May 2009
A concomitant posterior approach improves fusion rates but not overall reoperation rates in multilevel cervical fusion for spondylosis.
Retrospective comparative study of 2 approaches to multilevel fusion for cervical spondylosis in consecutive patients at a single institution. ⋯ A concomitant posterior fusion significantly reduced the incidence of pseudarthrosis (0% vs. 38%) and pseudarthrosis-related reoperations (0% vs. 22%) compared with traditional anterior-only fusion. However, this did not translate to a difference in overall reoperation rates. The majority of reoperations in the AP group (86%) were performed within 6 months, whereas those in the anterior-only group (65%) were performed later, which was generally when a pseudarthrosis became evident.