Zeitschrift für Rheumatologie
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This report will relate our experience with the y-plate, which we used in the treatment of 39 patients (32 women and 7 men) with a mean age of 62.6 years (range 47 to 79 years) between 1987 and 1994. All patients had rheumatoid arthritis. Occipitocervical fusion was indicated by instabilities within the occipitocervical region and in cases with additional basilar invagination and/or after transoral dens resection for decompression of the spinal cord. ⋯ According to the criteria of Conaty, the result was satisfying in 25 (75%) and not satisfying in 8 patients (25%). These results show the effectiveness of the occipitocervical fusion with the y-plate in rheumatoid arthritis. A transoral dens resection is only indicated in cases with basilar invagination causing a compression of the spinal cord or in such cases where a compression caused by the dens or the retrodental pannus formation cannot be treated by a reduction of the second cervical vertebra alone.