Laminoplasty for Cervical Myelopathy

This article reviews cervical laminoplasty. The origin of cervical laminoplasty dates back to cervical laminectomy performed in Japan ~50 years ago. To overcome poor surgical outcomes of cervical laminectomy, many Japanese orthopedic spine surgeons devoted their lives to developing better posterior decompression procedures for the cervical spine. Thanks to the development of a high-speed surgical burr, posterior decompression procedures for the cervical spine showed vast improvement from the 1970s to the 1980s, and the original form of cervical laminoplasty was determined. Since around 2000, surgeons performing cervical laminoplasty have been adopting less invasive procedures for the posterior cervical muscle structures so as to minimize postoperative axial neck pain and obtain better functional outcomes of the cervical spine. This article covers the history of cervical laminoplasty, surgical procedures, the benefits and limitation of this procedure, and surgery-related complications.