抄録
Since 1970, thirty-one “osteoplastic enlargement of the spinnal canal” have performed in our clinic on the patients with disorder of cervical cord who had had the indication of posterior decompression.
The advantages of this operation are 1) decompression of the cord at both posterior and lateral sides, 2) to prevent increasing instability of the cervical spine, and 3) to reduce delayed compression of the cord caused by adhesion and scar.
There were 16 cases of cervical spondylotic myelopathy, 11 of ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament, 2 of spinal cord tumor and 2 of cord injury.
The follow-up studies, from one month to 5 years and 6 months, showed enlargement of the canal, improvement of symptoms and also thickenning of remained laminae (average 3.6mm).
The proportion of the enlargement of the canal, measured by X-ray films, ranges from 16.7% to 53.8% (average 37.0%).
