Cervical and upper thoracic screwing for spinal fusion: strategy for its safe insertion to avoid major complications

There are several screwing techniques to attain cervical fusion such as pedicle screw, lateral mass screw, facet screw, transarticular and laminar screw. Each screwing technique has advantages and disadvantages. In this study, we introduce our strategy for safe screwing and its clinical results. Our strategy is as follows: lateral mass screw for C1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and pedicle screw for C2, 7, and thoracic level. When the C2 pedicle is thinner than 3.5 mm, we use C2 laminar screws. We do not use Magerl transarticular screw or facet screw; 146 screws were inserted in 17 patients. There were no major complications such as spinal cord and nerve root injury. We did not observe vertebral arterial injury either. Of the 146 screws, 141 (97.0%) were accurately inserted. As for lateral mass screwing by Roy-Camille's technique and C2 laminar screwing, all screws were inserted in the appropriate site (100%) without any complications. Five pedicle screws were misplaced. Of the 57 pedicle screws, 5 showed a minor tear of the wall at C7, Th1 and Th3, the success rate for all pedicle screws was 91%. All showed solid fusion. For cervical screwing the most important aspect should be safety to avoid severe morbidity. Our strategy, which consists in the combined use of pedicle, lateral mass and laminar screwing, is safe and reliable.