Abstract:

Cervical laminoplasty can make the cervical spinal cord drift backward by expanding the area of the bony spinal canal and increasing the effective space of the spinal canal, so as to achieve indirect decompression of the cervical spinal cord and relieve the clinical symptoms. It is a common surgical procedure for the treatment of multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy and cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament. After nearly half a century of development, there has been a variety of improved cervical laminoplasty methods, resulting in positive surgical outcomes and satisfactory long-term results. However, cervical laminoplasty requires partial dissection of the cervical paraspinal muscles, which destroys the cervical bone structure and spinous process-muscle-ligament complex, resulting in partial loss of the function of the posterior column of the cervical spine to transfer and share load. It is difficult to maintain the new cervical sagittal balance after laminoplasty. In order to reduce the load consumption of the posterior cervical muscles, the gravity of the cervical spine moves forward, which accelerates the local cervical sagittal imbalance. This review focuses on the effects of cervical laminoplasty on cervical sagittal alignment and the subsequent compensatory mechanisms, and discusses the prospects for research on the effects of cervical laminoplasty on the whole spine and spinal-pelvic sagittal balance and relevant compensatory mechanisms,with an aim to provide a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment decision in the future.

Key words: Cervical laminoplasty, Sagittal balance, Sagittal axial axis, T1 slope, T1 spinopelvic inclination