ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the feasibility, safety, and clinical outcome in patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy underwent cervical nerve root decompression using the anterior percutaneous endoscopic surgery.Methods Eleven subjects consisting of 6 men and 5 women treated from July 2012 to December 2013 were enrolled in the study.Mean age was 42.1 years (range, 27 to 63 years).All were diagnosed to be unilateral single-segment injury involving C3/4 in 1 case, C4/5 in 2 cases, C5/6 in 6 cases and C6/7 in 2 cases.Because of unsatisfactory results 6 week following the non-operative treatment, the patients were operated on using the anterior percutaneous endoscopic osteophyte removal and nerve root decompression.Operation time, postoperative complications, visual analogue scale (VAS) and modified Macnab scale were recorded.Results Operation time was (102.5 ± 21.3) min (range, 80-140 min).Nine patients were followed up for 12 months and no complications were noted.VAS improved significantly at postoperative 3 days and 1, 3, 6, as well as 12 months compared to the preoperative value (P ＜ 0.01).Modified Macnab scale presented great improvement at postoperative 3 and 12 months compared to the preoperative value (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion The technique is reliable and effective in treatment of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy.