title: Does laminoplasty really improve neurological status in patients with cervical spinal cord injury without bone and disc injury? A prospective study about neurological recovery and early complications.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cervical spinal cord injury without bone and disc injury in patients with spinal cord compression is a fairly common problem in Japan. Because elderly Japanese population tend to have cervical spinal canal stenosis. However, there has been no consensus in the treatment of these patients. We conducted a prospective study to evaluate treatment outcomes and complications of these patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-five patients had been enrolled in this study. Patients who had paralysis of ASIA impairment scale (AIS) A, B or C were included. With each new patient, we alternated whether he/she received surgical treatment (group S) or conservative treatment (group C). Eleven patients were assigned to each group. We compared the two groups' courses of treatment and complications by evaluating their neurological symptoms using the AIS and ASIA motor score (MS) documenting them at the time of injury and 3 months later.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of clinical paralysis was found at the C3/4 level for both the groups. According to complications, there were seven urinary tract infections and four pneumonias in group S and one urinary tract infection and three pneumonias in group C. Both groups had an average MS of 42 at the time of injury. Three months later, the average MSs were 59 points in group S and 65 points in group C.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the present study, we found no significant difference in paralysis improvement between surgical and conservative treatment, although we observed a higher frequency of complications with surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8558, Japan, tetsuromazaki@yahoo.co.jp.
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mazaki
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Yoshihisa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.forename: Koichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koshimune
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ozaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007796:Laminectomy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010243:Paralysis / Q000209:etiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013117:Spinal Cord Compression / Q000150:complications; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D013130:Spinal Stenosis / Q000150:complications; D016896:Treatment Outcome