There is a report that 60% of patients suffer from neck and shoulder symptoms following unilateral open type laminoplasty. As for French-window-open type cervical laminoplasty, however, postoperative nuchal pain has not been fully investigated. The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence and severity of nuchal pain following French-window-open type cervical laminoplasty, and to investigate the pain's influencing factor. Eighty-three cases with spastic tetraparesis due to cervical spondylotic myelopathy or ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament were followed. We interviewed these patients, at three months after surgery and again at one year after surgery, about the existence of nuchal pain, its laterality, and whether treatment was needed. Nuchal complaints remained in 56 out of 83 patients at three months and in 37 out of 78 patients at one year following surgery. There was no correlation between the complaint and disease, age, sex, blood loss, or method of muscle reconstruction. The side for which the patient complained of pain coincided with the approached side, and the magnitude of the complaint correlated with operation time. The results suggest that the cause of the nuchal pain is damage to the posterior neck muscles by retractor.
Midline Splitting Cervical Laminoplasty Using Allogeneic Bone Spacers: Comparison of Fusion Rates between Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy and Ossification of Posterior Longitudinal Ligament