Clinical efficacy of three different techniques of fusion in the treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy

Objective To observe the clinical effects of cervical spondylotic myelopathy and bone graft fusion by different methods for cervical spondylotic myelopathy.Methods Seventy-one cases of cervical spondylotic myelopathy were treated by cervical anterior decompression and bone graft fusion with three surgical procedures from January 2009 to November 2011.Twenty-four cases were treated by anterior cervical discectomy and bone grafting and fusion (group A),27 cases were treated by cervical anterior decompression bone grafting and internal fixation with steel plate (group B),20 cases were treated by anterior cervical decompression,titanium plate internal fixation(group C),cervical disc prosthesis implantation.X-ray films and regular follow-up were taken after operation to observe the curative effects,the interbody height,the cervical vertebra antecttrvature and the fusion of operative segments.Results According to the results of the follow-up,the fusion rates of A,B,C group were 95.3％,95.4％,97.8％.When the follow-up was over,while there was no such difference in A,B or C group (F =2.32,P ＞ 0.05),while there was no statistical significance in the differences among A,B or C group (F =2.23,P ＞ 0.05).Condusions The key point of the treatment of cervical spondylotic myclopathy lies in thorough decompression and effective bone graft fusion,furthermore,different techniques of fusion affect the curative effects significantly. Key words: Spine cervical; Spondylotic myelopathy; Vertebral fusion; Anterior route operation