Cervical spondylotic myelopathy surgical trial: randomized, controlled trial design and rationale.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is the most common cause of spinal cord dysfunction in the world. There are significant practice variation and uncertainty as to the optimal surgical approach for treating CSM.

Objective

To determine whether ventral surgery is associated with superior Short Form-36 Physical Component Summary outcome at the 1-year follow-up compared with dorsal (laminectomy/fusion or laminoplasty) surgery for the treatment of CSM, to investigate whether postoperative sagittal balance is an independent predictor of overall outcome, and to compare health resource use for ventral and dorsal procedures.

Methods

The study is a randomized, controlled trial with a nonrandomized arm for patients who are eligible but decline randomization. Two hu

SUBMITTER: Ghogawala Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4633023 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature