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Complications following anterior approaches to the cervical spine

Review of 535 surgical procedures

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Summary

The authors present a retrospective study of 535 consecutive anterior approaches to the cervical spine back to 5 years. The data were analyzed for post-operative complications. This surgical procedure has been commonly used for more than 40 years, but the post-operative complications due to the anterior approach itself were presented with few accompanying statistics, with various and contradictory results. Injury to nearly all of the structures has been reported in the literature, the more frequent problems are hoarseness and dysphagia; other complications include perforation of the oesophagus, hematomas, vascular injury⋯

Analysis of this data allows to understand better the specific problems related to this surgical approach, and to suggest precautions at each stage of the course of exposure of cervical vertebrae.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unité de Pathologie Rachidienne, Hôpital Pellegrin, Bordeaux, France

    J. M. Vital & J. Sénégas

  2. Département de Chirurgie Orthopédique, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Bruxelles, Belgique

    D. Viejo-Fuertes, M. Ansari & J. J. Rombouts

  3. Service de Neurochirurgie-ouest, Hôpital Pellegrin, Bordeaux, France

    D. Liguoro

Authors
  1. D. Viejo-Fuertes
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  2. D. Liguoro
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  3. M. Ansari
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  4. J. J. Rombouts
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  5. J. M. Vital
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  6. J. Sénégas
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Viejo-Fuertes, D., Liguoro, D., Ansari, M. et al. Complications following anterior approaches to the cervical spine. Eur J Orthop Surg Traumatol 10, 177–181 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01682311

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01682311

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