Preliminary Experiences of the Combined Midline-Splitting French Door Laminoplasty with Polyether Ether Ketone (PEEK) Plate for Cervical Spondylosis and OPLL

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of cervical midline-splitting French-door laminoplasty with a polyether ether ketone (PEEK) plate. The authors retrospectively analyzed the results of patients with cervical laminoplasty miniplate (MAXPACER®) without bone grafts in multilevel cervical stenosis. METHODS: Fifteen patients (13 males and 2 females, mean age 50.0 years (range 35-72)) with multilevel cervical stenosis (ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament and cervical spondylotic myelopathy) underwent a combined surgery of midline-splitting French-door laminoplasty with or without mini plate. All 15 patients were followed for at least 12 months (mean follow-up 13.3 months) after surgery, and a retrospective review of the clinical, radiological and surgical data was conducted. RESULTS: The radiographic results showed a significant increase over the postoperative period in anterior-posterior diameter (9.4±2.2 cm to 16.2±1.1 cm), open angles in cervical lamina (46.5±16.0° to 77.2±13.1°), and sectional volume of cervical central canal (100.5±0.7 cm(2) to 146.5±4.9 cm(2)) (p<0.001). The sagittal alignment of the cervical spine was well preserved (31.7±10.0° to 31.2±7.6°, p=0.877) during the follow-up period. The clinical results were successful, and there were no significant intraoperative complications except for screw displacement in two cases. The mini plate constructs did not fail during the 12 month follow-up period, and the decompression was maintained. CONCLUSION: Despite the small cohort and short follow-up duration, the present study demonstrated that combined cervical expansive laminoplasty using the mini plate is an effective treatment for multilevel cervical stenosis.