Anterior decompression and arthrodesis of the cervical spine: long-term motor improvement. Part I--Improvement in incomplete traumatic quadriparesis.

Between 1973 and 1983, fifty-eight patients who had an incomplete spinal-cord injury secondary to a fracture or dislocation of the cervical spine were managed by anterior cervical decompression and arthrodesis with iliac bone grafts. In all patients, myelography showed that displaced fragments of bone or disc were compressing the anterior aspect of the spinal cord. Anterior decompression was performed in an attempt to improve function in the upper and lower extremities. The average interval from the injury to the decompression was thirteen months (range, one month to nine years). Two patients died of cardiopulmonary disease within two months after the operation, and one patient died eighteen months after the operation. The remaining fifty-five patients were followed for an average of six years (range, two to seventeen years). Twenty-nine patients became functional ambulators after the operation. An additional six patients who could walk before the operation had improvement in the ability to walk. Noteworthy improvement in motor-root function in the upper extremities was seen in thirty-nine patients. Only nine patients had no signs of improvement of motor function. Improvement was less in the patients in whom operative decompression had been done more than twelve months after the injury. The patients who had an extension injury to a spondylotic spine were older, and fewer of them had improvement. No patient lost neurological function as a result of the operation. Anterior decompression and arthrodesis, even when performed late after the injury, can improve neurological function in both the upper and lower extremities in many patients who have incomplete quadriplegia due to a fracture or dislocation of the cervical spine.