2024 Volume 15 Issue 8 Pages 1067-1072
Introduction: Full-endoscopic posterior cervical foraminotomy (FPCF) is known as a minimally invasive and excellent procedure for cervical radiculopathy. However, there is a learning curve for the safe and reliable surgical technique of FPCF. In this study, we examined the learning curve of FPCF.
Methods: Fifty-five patients with cervical radiculopathy who underwent single level FPCF by the same surgeon were included in the study. The first FPCF was performed by the same surgeon after having experienced 5 cases of FED IL/TF. The clinical and radiological data were collected and analyzed, including operation time, improvement rate of VAS for upper arm pain, and bone resection rate of the facet joint.
Results: Operation time tended to decrease as the number of cases increased. The mean operation time was 90.8±29.6 minutes in the early stage, 75.6±27.4 minutes in the middle stage, and 70.5±17.4 minutes in the late stage, and the operation time tended to decrease as the number of cases increased (p=0.044 for trend). The improvement rate of VAS for upper arm pain was 87.5±27.5% in the early period, 77.0±25.3% in the mid period, and 76.1±30.6% in the late period. The bone resection rate of the facet joint was 27.2±11.8% in the early period, 33.9±9.5% in the mid period, and 30.3±14.0% in the late period, with no statistically significant trend (p=0.081 for trend, p=0.50 for trend).
Conclusions: FPCF can be performed by surgeon inexperienced in lumbar FESS, and the improvement rate of VAS was good from the initial cases.
