Bibliometric and visualized analysis of the top 100 most-cited articles on anterior cervical surgery

Anterior cervical surgery (ACS) owes its development to various pioneering individuals whose revolutionary works form key advances and guide current medical decisions. This bibliometric study aimed to identify, analyse and visualize the main features of the most-cited papers in ACS. The citation count for the top 100 most-cited articles ranged from 148 to 1,197, and citations per year ranged from 3.1 to 89.8. The articles were published from 1958 to 2016, with the 2000s being the most active decade. There was an inverse correlation between the average citations per year since publication and article age. The oldest as well as most-cited two articles were both published in 1958 by Smith and Robinson, and Cloward, respectively. In their studies, the authors individually described the technique of anterior cervical discectomy with fusion (ACDF). The most popular keywords were: ‘fusion’ (22), ‘spine’ (20), ‘cervical spine’ (16), ‘complications’ (15), ‘arthrodesis’ (13), ‘interbody fusion’ (13), ‘bone morphogenetic protein’ (13), and ‘radiculopathy’ (12). ACDF was the most frequent surgical procedure (80%), while cervical disc arthroplasty is of gradual greater impact. The surgical techniques of ACDF have remained unaltered for over 60 years. More attempts are needed to promote its development. Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2021;6:1203-1213. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.6.210074

Delayed onset postoperative retropharyngeal hematoma after anterior cervical surgery with a sequela of tracheal stricture: a case report

Background Among the several complications associated with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), airway compromise is considered one of the serious life-threatening conditions and usually requires emergent treatment, including airway establishment and hematoma evacuation surgery. Postoperative retropharyngeal hematoma commonly occurred during the on immediate phase with airway compromise, but have a rarity on late onset of this complication. Enlightened by this existing fact, we report the first case of delayed onset postoperative retropharyngeal hematoma after anterior cervical surgery with a sequela of tracheal stricture. Case presentation A 55-year-old male underwent ACDF for disc herniation at C5–6 that had not responded to conservative treatment over 3 months. The symptoms significantly improved after surgery, and he was discharged on postoperative day 3. On the 7 days after ACDF, the patient complained of sudden-onset left-deviated neck swelling. The follow-up plain radiographs and neck-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scans showed anterior and right lateral displacement of the airway including the trachea by a large retropharyngeal hematoma. We performed an emergent forceful endotracheal intubation that was maintained for 2 days until the patient underwent hematoma evacuation surgery. On the second day after hematoma evacuation surgery, the patient complained of hoarseness with a foul breath odor. Laryngoscopy showed tracheal ischemic mucosal damage that had been induced by forceful endotracheal intubation. Antibiotics and systemic corticosteroids were administered, and the symptoms improved. One month after hematoma evacuation surgery, he complained of dyspnea on exertion, and laryngoscopy showed tracheal stricture. The patient underwent bronchoscopic dilatation and is doing well without recurrence of symptoms. Conclusions Early surgery to remove the delayed onset retropharyngeal hematoma, rather than forceful endotracheal intubation followed by delayed surgery, might yield better results and avoid unexpected complications of tracheal stricture.

Intelligent Three-Dimensional Reconstruction Algorithm-Based X-Ray Film for Analysis of the Changes in Sagittal Parameters and Curative Effect of Anterior Cervical Surgery

In this paper, the change characteristics of sagittal parameters of the patient’s body before and after anterior cervical surgery and rehabilitation effect were analyzed. The rotation transformation and perspective projection transformation were applied to construct a positive and lateral position (PLP) matching-based three-dimensional reconstruction (PLP-3DR) algorithm, which was compared with the marching cubes (MC) algorithm and gravity point (GP) algorithm. PLP-3DR was adopted in X-ray image diagnosis of 124 cervical spondylosis patients. Results showed that sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of PLP-3DR were markedly higher than those of MC and GP ( P < 0.05 ). The postoperative C2-7 Cobbs’s angle (C2-7Cobb) (11.27 ± 8.41°) was smaller than that before the surgery (15.03 ± 7.39°) ( P < 0.05 ), while the postoperative cervical sagittal vertical axis (cSVA) (21.33 ± 10.38 mm) and Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores (16.95 ± 6.07 points) were greater than those before the surgery (14.66 ± 9.68 mm and 11.39 ± 4.28 points) ( P < 0.05 ). Besides, the improvement rate of patients from the cSVA >25 mm group (68.31%) was greater than the rate of the cSVA <15 mm group (45.88%) and the cSVA within 15–25 mm group (47.29%) ( P < 0.05 ). In conclusion, PLP-3DR could effectively improve the diagnostic effect of spine X-ray film images, with high sensitivity and specificity. Anterior cervical surgery had a good curative effect for patients with cervical spondylosis and was closely related to cervical parameters (cSVA, T1 slope, and C2-7Cobb). In addition, patients with cSVA>25 mm could have the best postoperative rehabilitation effect.