title: Results of posterior cervical foraminotomy for treatment of cervical spondylitic radiculopathy.
abstract: We evaluated the results of posterior cervical foraminotomy for spondylitic radiculopathy using a questionnaire sent to all 77 patients who had undergone surgery between 1990 and 1995 at our institution. Sixty-two patients (40 male) returned their questionnaires, one of whom had undergone two procedures (dealt with as separate events). Sixty patients complained of pre-operative arm pain; of these 42 (70%) had complete or > 75% resolution of their pain, 14 (23%) had < 75% improvement in their pain and four (7%) had the same or worsened pain at the time of the questionnaire. Sixteen patients (27%) reported initial improvement in symptoms with subsequent deterioration. The mean patient satisfaction score using a linear analogue scale from 0 to 10 was 7.5. Main postoperative complaints were neck pain (22%), persisting motor deficit (6%) and persisting sensory deficit (9%). One patient suffered nerve root damage at surgery. For unilateral and, in some cases, multi-level degenerative disease causing cervical radiculopathy, posterior cervical foraminotomy is a useful technique with the advantage of avoiding fusion, immobilization and the long-term risk of instability.
authors.affiliation: Atkinson Morley's Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Grieve
authors.forename: N D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Kitchen
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Marsh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010147:Pain Measurement; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011843:Radiculopathy / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D012008:Recurrence; D013166:Spondylitis / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*