Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2022; 10(15): 4776-4784
Published online May 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i15.4776
Outcomes of cervical degenerative disc disease treated by anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with self-locking fusion cage
Bo Zhang, Yu-Zhen Jiang, Qing-Peng Song, Yan An
Bo Zhang, Yu-Zhen Jiang, Qing-Peng Song, Yan An, Department of Spine Surgery, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing 100035, China
Author contributions: Zhang B designed the research study; Jiang YZ, Song QP, and An Y performed the research; Jiang YZ and Song QP analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital (202110-04).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: Data can be acquired from the corresponding author.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bo Zhang, MD, Chief Doctor, Neurosurgeon, Professor, Surgeon, Department of Spine Surgery, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, No. 31 Xinjiekou East Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100035, China. jishuitanjizhu@163.com
Received: December 5, 2021
Peer-review started: December 5, 2021
First decision: December 27, 2021
Revised: January 7, 2022
Accepted: March 26, 2022
Article in press: March 26, 2022
Published online: May 26, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Cervical degenerative disc (CDD) disease is a common type of spondylosis. Although anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is the preferred treatment for CDD disease, internal fixation with a titanium plate may cause various complications. The invention of the ACDF with a self-locking fusion cage (ROI-C) has effectively decreased the incidence of postoperative complications.

AIM

To observe the outcomes of CDD disease treated by ACDF with a ROI-C.

METHODS

Ninety patients with CDD disease treated at our hospital from March 2019 to March 2021 were included. They were divided into two groups (control group and observation group, n = 45 in each) using a random number table. Patients in the control group received ACDF plus internal fixation with a titanium plate. Those in the observation group received ACDF + ROI-C placement. The two groups of patients were compared in terms of surgical parameters, pain, cervical spine function, range of motion, and complications.

RESULTS

The two groups of patients showed no significant differences in surgical time, blood loss, drainage volume, and length of hospital stay (P > 0.05). No significant differences in the visual analogue scale (VAS), Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA), and neck disability index (NDI) scores were observed between the two groups before surgery (P > 0.05). The VAS and NDI scores in the observation group were considerably lower than those in the control group after surgery; however, the JOA scores in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed in cervical disc height and the range of motion of the superior or inferior adjacent vertebrae between the two groups before surgery (P > 0.05). The disc height in the observation group was larger than that in the control group after surgery. The range of motion of both the superior and inferior adjacent vertebrae was significantly smaller in the observation group than in the control group (P < 0.05). The incidence of complications was only 2.22% in the observation group compared to 15.56% in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Cervical spine function restoration was better with ROI-C with internal fixation in ACDF than with conventional titanium plates in ACDF for CDD disease.

Keywords: Degenerative disc disease, Self-locking fusion cage featuring VerteBRIDGE plates, Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, Therapy

Core Tip: Self-locking fusion cage (ROI-C) with internal fixation showed similar efficacy to conventional titanium plates in anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for cervical degenerative disc disease. However, cervical spine function restoration was better with the former than with the latter. The ROI-C featuring VerteBRIDGE plates is worthy of clinical application. The pain and complications were less common using ROI-C compared with conventional titanium plates in ACDF. The range of motion of the cervical spine was not increased significantly after using ROI-C.