Posterolateral cervical transpedicular corpectomy for the surgical management of metastatic tumor.

Management of metastatic spinal disease in the upper cervical spine can be particularly challenging. Depending on the level of the lesion and the patient's anatomy, multiple anterior approaches have been described for resection of the cancer, followed by posterior fixation and instrumentation. Although a single-stage posterolateral approach is now well established for thoracic pathology, less is known about the applicability of these principles when applied as an approach to the cervical spine. The authors present here a case using a posterolateral transpedicular approach for corpectomy and graft placement for circumferential reconstruction as a treatment of metastatic disease in the cervical spine to illustrate the feasibility of this technique, especially in the setting where the patient's anatomy or pathology may impede an anterior or combined circumferential approach.