Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Plenty of materials, such as autogenous iliac bone, allogeneic bone, and titanium mesh, are used for anterior cervical reconstruction, with each advantages and disadvantages. Nano-hydroxyapatite and polyamide 66 (n-HA/PA66) artificial vertebral body has good biocompatibility and biological safety and is an ideal substitute for vertebral body bone graft.
OBJECTIVE: To study clinical effect and difference between the n-HA/PA66 composite artificial vertebral body and the iliac bone autograft in anterior cervical decompression and fusion for treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy.
METHODS: From January 2009 to March 2010, 40 cases of cervical spondylotic myelopathy were treated with anterior cervical subtotal corpectomy and fixed by titanium locking plates. 22 implanted with n-HA/PA66 composite artificial vertebral body and 18 with iliac bone autograft. The JOA grading system was done in follow up to evaluate neural symptoms, and Cobb’s angle was measured to evaluate the change of cervical curvature, interverberal height, fusion number at postoperative 6 months was measured.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: All patients were followed up for 6-14 months. The JOA grading was greatly improved in both groups. But there were significant differences on interverberal posterior height and restoring lordosis of fusion segment at different time intervals (P < 0.01). According to fusion criteria, difference between the two methods was not significant at 6 months and 3 months after treatment (P > 0.05). n-HA/PA66 composite artificial vertebral body was the same fusion rate as iliac bone autograft, and could effectively maintain the biological alignment and cervical intervertebral height. The long-term effects depend on further follow-up.