OBJECT Posterior cervical surgery, expansive laminoplasty (EL) or laminectomy followed by fusion (LF), is usually performed in patients with multilevel (≥ 3) cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). However, the superiority of either of these techniques is still open to debate. The aim of this study was to compare clinical outcomes and postoperative kyphosis in patients undergoing EL versus LF by performing a meta-analysis. METHODS Included in the meta-analysis were all studies of EL versus LF in adults with multilevel CSM in MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and the Cochrane library. A random-effects model was applied to pool data using the mean difference (MD) for continuous outcomes, such as the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) grade, the cervical curvature index (CCI), and the visual analog scale (VAS) score for neck pain. RESULTS Seven studies comprising 302 and 290 patients treated with EL and LF, respectively, were included in the final analyses. Both treatment groups showed slight cervical lordosis and moderate neck pain in the baseline state. Both groups were similarly improved in JOA grade (MD 0.09, 95% CI -0.37 to 0.54, p = 0.07) and neck pain VAS score (MD -0.33, 95% CI -1.50 to 0.84, p = 0.58). Both groups evenly lost cervical lordosis. In the LF group lordosis seemed to be preserved in long-term follow-up studies, although the difference between the 2 treatment groups was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Both EL and LF lead to clinical improvement and loss of lordosis evenly. There is no evidence to support EL over LF in the treatment of multilevel CSM. Any superiority between EL and LF remains in question, although the LF group shows favorable long-term results.
Keywords: CCI = cervical curvature index; CSM = cervical spondylotic myelopathy; EL = expansive laminoplasty; JOA = Japanese Orthopaedic Association; LF = laminectomy followed by fusion; MD = mean difference; VAS = visual analog scale; cervical; comparison; fusion; laminectomy; laminoplasty; meta-analysis; myelopathy.