Treatment of cervical spine injuries with anterior plating. Indications, techniques, and results

This study analyzed 86 patients who sustained a cervical spine injury and who had 93 anterior surgical interventions of the cervical spine. The average age of the patients was 39 years, the mean follow-up 40 months. Twenty-two patients had predominantly vertebral body fractures (burst or tear-drop fractures) and were treated by bisegmental anterior bone grafting and plating. Sixty-four patients had predominantly posterior lesions, either discoligamentous or osteoligamentous, and were treated by unisegmental bone grafting and plating. Forty-three patients were neurologically intact. There were no relevant complications except in one patient, who needed reoperation because of a secondary redislocation due to a technically insufficient osteosynthesis. The technique of anterior bone grafting and plating is shown to be straight-forward, atraumatic, and reliable for predominantly anterior lesions as well as for posterior injuries when performed properly. This clinical experiences does not support experimental data and earlier clinical work, which advocate posterior surgery over anterior surgery and assert that anterior surgery should not be done in predominantly posterior lesions.