Does donor site reconstruction following anterior cervical surgery diminish postoperative pain?

Many attempts have been made at donor site reconstruction to reduce postoperative pain following anterior cervical surgery. This study is a comparative analysis of the outcome of 46 patients undergoing single-level anterior corpectomy and fusion using iliac crest autograft performed by one surgeon (N.E.E.). Twenty-three patients had no donor site reconstruction, whereas the more recent 23 patients had iliac crest reconstruction using a MacroPore sheet (MacroPore, Inc., San Diego, CA) and Inductive Conductive Matrix (ICM, Sofamor Danek, Memphis, TN). Bodily Pain, assessed on the Short Form-36, obtained up to 12 months postoperatively, failed to demonstrate better pain relief following donor site reconstruction. Multiplanar CT studies obtained 6 months postoperatively documented 100% donor site fusion for the 23 reconstructed patients. Although iliac crest reconstruction failed to reduce Bodily Pain, it did result in 100% fusion.