Cumhuriyet Medical Journal

Öz

Introduction: Anterior cervical corpectomy is a frequently employed surgical procedure used to decompress the spinal cord in the surgical treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy.This study investigated the clinical and radiologic outcomes and complications of one- and two-level anterior cervical corpectomy. Methods: A retrospective evaluation was conducted on patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy who underwent one- and two-level anterior cervical corpectomy between 2006 and 2022. The primary outcomes were clinically assessed using the visual analog scale to measure neck pain and radiologically based on the sagittal C2–C7 and T1 slope angles. Further, the results were evaluated in terms of complications and fusion. Results: The one-level and two-level corpectomy groups comprised 16 and 9 patients, respectively, resulting in a total of 25 patients who underwent anterior cervical corpectomy. The postoperative visual analog scale scores significantly decreased in both groups compared with that of baseline (p = 0.001; p < 0.01 and p = 0.007; p < 0.01). Similarly, the postoperative T1 slope angle showed a significant decrease compared with that of baseline in both groups (p = 0.001; p < 0.01 and p = 0.007; p < 0.01), while the postoperative C2–C7 angle significantly increased in both groups compared with that of baseline (p = 0.001; p < 0.01 and p = 0.007; p < 0.01). However, no significant differences were observed in terms of preoperative and postoperative visual analog scale scores, T1 slope angle, C2–C7 angles, and changes from baseline between the groups (p > 0.05), (p = 0.637; p > 0.05), (p = 0.169; p > 0.05), and (p > 0.05), (p = 0.452; p > 0.05). The operation duration for patients in the two-level group was significantly longer than that in the one-level group (p = 0.007; p < 0.01). Conclusion: The study findings indicated no significant clinical or radiological differences between cases undergoing one-level and two-level anterior corpectomy, except for the differences observed in operation duration. While anterior cervical corpectomy presents surgical challenges and carries a relatively higher risk of complications, meticulous surgical techniques can yield satisfactory outcomes, particularly in the context of one- and two-level anterior corpectomy.