ONE-LEVEL CERVICAL-SPINE FUSION - A RANDOMIZED STUDY, WITH OR WITHOUTPLATE FIXATION, USING RADIOSTEREOMETRY IN 27 PATIENTS

We randomized 27 consecutive patients undergoing 1-level cervical disc surgery to surgery with or without anterior plate fixation. The patie nts were studied with radiostereometry and clinically with visual anal ogue scores (VAS) for arm and neck pain. After 2 years, 1 patient had developed pseudoarthrosis, all other fusions were healed, but 1 patien t showed substantial motions in the fusion area between the 1- and 2-y ear follow-ups. The 12 patients operated on without a plate had increa sed rotations around the transverse axis, corresponding to deformation towards kyphosis. Clinically, there was no difference in outcome betw een the two groups, as assessed by VAS. The use of an anterior plate i n 1-level degenerative disc surgery in the cervical spine seems to pre vent rotational deformation, without affecting the clinical outcome or fusion healing.