C-Arm-Free Minimally Invasive Cervical Pedicle Screw Fixation (MICEPS): A Technical Note

A minimally invasive posterolateral approach designed to avoid the lateral misplacement of midcervical pedicle screws was reported, but there is no technical report that describes this technique without C-arm fluoroscopy. We report the results of a 2.5 years follow-up of a 62-year-old female patient with C4 metastatic breast cancer. The patient suffered from severe neck pain and impending quadriplegia for 2 months after radiation therapy. We performed C-arm-free minimally invasive cervical pedicle screw fixation (MICEPS). The patient was suc-cessfully treated with surgery, and her neck pain was well controlled. She had neither neurological deficits nor neck pain at the final (2.5-year) follow-up. C-arm-free MICEPS is a useful technique; in addition, the sur-geons and staff have no risk of radiation exposure, there is a reduced need for postoperative imaging, and a decreased revision rate can be expected with C-arm-free MICEPS.