Anterior cervical microforaminotomy for persistent brachialgia in a patient with multilevel cervical spondylosis; comparing PROMIS with Nurick score for outcome of surgery

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: The primal instinct of neurosurgeons has been to maintain spinal stability and motion since the beginning of spinal procedures. Conventional anterior approaches without fusion eliminate motion in time as fusion invariably sets in and hampers the vertebral column's normal dynamic physiology. CASE PRESENTATION: We reported a 60 years old male patient who presented with signs of myelopathy, but his primary complaint was brachialgia. He had myelopathic features for eight years, for which he offered fusion surgery at multiple levels years ago, and he denied it. He was static since then, and the disease did not progress further. For intolerable pain, he agreed to minimally invasive surgery. Therefore, we operated for a right C6 transcorporeal microforaminotomy and removed the inciting disc material. CLINICAL DISCUSSION: Clinical implication for anterior cervical microforaminotomy for this patient was successful where there was acute disc prolapse in cervical spondylotic myelopathy. CONCLUSION: Finally, functional preservation of the cervical spine in multilevel spondylosis can optimize the fusion. In this case, the report authors have explored the comparison between the PROMIS score and the Nurick score, reporting for the first time.