Anterior Contralateral Cervical Microdiscectomy at C7-T1

To retrospectively review the patients who had disc herniation at C7-T1 level and were treated using the senior author's anterior contralateral simple microdiscectomy without fusion technique.

From January 2000 to December 2021, 27 patients underwent surgery for C7-T1 disc herniation, all of which were performed by the same neurosurgeon. Clinical and radiological data were collected before surgery and at 3 and 24 months after surgery. The Short Form-36 and Neck disability questionnaire were used to assess the quality of life.

All patients presented with radiculopathy. There were 16 male and 11 female patients, with an average age of 40 years. The average follow-up period was 9.7 years. The postoperative Short Form-36 and Neck Disability Index scores were significantly different from the preoperative scores. Overall scores at the postoperative 24th month did not differ significantly from those obtained at the postoperative third month.

We propose that patients with symptoms of disc herniation at C7-T1 level benefit from an anterior contralateral microdiscectomy without fusion.