Anterior cervical transvertebral approach for resection of an intraspinal ventral lesion: illustrative case

BACKGROUND: The anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion approach has been reported for the removal of ventral cervical tumors. However, the normal cervical vertebral body and the adjacent intervertebral discs have to be sacrificed. In this paper, the authors describe a novel anterior cervical transvertebral approach for the resection of cervical intraspinal ventral lesions. OBSERVATIONS: A patient presented with an anteriorly placed extramedullary cyst. An anterior cervical transvertebral open-window and close-window approach was designed and applied to resect an intraspinal ventral enterogenous cyst. With this novel technique, a square was cut through the whole vertebral body at the four sides. After the cyst resection, the bone block was restored and fixed with a titanium miniplate. The lesion was totally resected, and the compression of the spinal cord was relieved. The physiological function of the cervical spine was kept intact after the operation. There was no postsurgical complication. The cervical alignment was normal at the 1-year postoperative follow-up. LESSONS: The anterior cervical transvertebral open-window and close-window approach was developed and confirmed to be effective for the resection of cervical intraspinal lesions. The cervical physiological structure and function can be restored with this new technique.