The ratio of C2-C7 Cobb angle to T1 slope is an effective parameter for the selection of posterior surgical approach for patients with multisegmental cervical spondylotic myelopathy.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: To our knowledge, laminectomy with fusion (LCF) and laminoplasty alone (LP) are both effective posterior surgical approaches for decompression of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). However, which one is suitable for patients has no standard answer. This study estimated whether the ratio of C2-C7 Cobb angle to T1 slope (CL/T1S) could be an indication of posterior surgical approach. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 128 patients with at least 6 months of follow-up who underwent LCF or LP. Radiological measurements, including C2-C7 Cobb angle, decompressed Cobb angle, T1 slope, cervical sagittal vertical axis, and curvature index (CI), and clinical outcomes, including Japanese Orthopedic Association score and visual analogue scale were evaluated. ROC curve analysis was used to identify discriminative power of CL/T1S ratio to predict kyphotic deformity and severe lordosis loss. The t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to evaluate the difference between LCF and LP. Kruskal-Wallis H - test and ANOVA were used to evaluate the difference among different ratio CL/T1S groups. RESULTS: The cervical lordosis decreased after LCF or LP (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). Based on ROC curve analysis, CL/T1S ratio had a good discriminative power to predict kyphotic deformity and severe lordosis loss (AUC = 0.70, AUC = 0.88, respectively). According to CI value changes, cervical lordosis losses in group LP were larger than that in group LCF (p = 0.006). However, there was no significant difference in CI changes of fair-ratio CL/T1S group between LCF and LP. For patients with low CL/T1S ratio or high CL/T1S ratio, CI changes in group LP were greater than that in group LCF (p = 0.037, p = 0.042, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: CL/T1S ratio could be an indication of posterior surgical approach. Compared with LP, LCF reduces postoperative cervical lordosis losses in low-ratio and high-ratio CL/T1S groups.