Cervical disc herniation outcome

The surgical outcomes of CDH have been reported to be successful in terms of clinical and radiological measures 1) 2).

Decreased disk height, percentage of herniated nucleus pulposus HNP in the spinal canal, or presence of signal intensity change in the spinal cord seem to be the important risk factors for motor weakness in patients with cervical disk herniation. Moreover, the presence of signal intensity change in the spinal cord seems to be an important risk factor for delayed recovery 3).

The better long-term results with the posterior operation might be due to the more complete opening of the foramen for neural decompression at the time of the operation and thereafter 4).

1)
Decker RC. Surgical treatment and outcomes of cervical radiculopathy. Phys Med Rehabil Clin N Am. 2011;22:179–191.
2)
Smith JS, Helgeson MD, Albert TJ. The argument for anterior cervical discectomy and fusion over total disk replacement. Semin Spine Surg. 2012;24:2–7.
3)
Nam TW, Lee HS, Goh TS, Lee JS. Predictors of Motor Weakness and Delayed Recovery in Cervical Disk Herniation. J Spinal Disord Tech. 2015 Aug;28(7):E405-9. doi: 10.1097/BSD.0b013e31829f5a1f. PubMed PMID: 26213841.
4)
Dohrmann GJ, Hsieh JC. Long-Term Results of Anterior versus Posterior Operations for Herniated Cervical Discs: Analysis of 6,000 Patients. Med Princ Pract. 2014;23(1):70-3. doi: 10.1159/000351887. Epub 2013 Sep 27. PubMed PMID: 24080595.