The duration of symptoms and clinical outcomes in patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for degenerative disc disease and radiculopathy.

Background Context: There have been controversial reports published in the literature on the duration of symptoms (DOS) and clinical outcome correlation in patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for painful degenerative disc disease and radiculopathy.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to analyze if the DOS has any effect on clinical outcomes.

Study Design/setting: A post hoc analysis was performed on an original prospective clinical study analyzing clinical outcomes and cervical sagittal alignment correlations.

Patients Sample: Fifty-eight patients undergoing one- or two-level ACDF surgeries for cervical degenerative radiculopathy were analyzed.

Outcome Measures: Standardized questionnaires were used to evaluate clinical outcomes. Neck and arm pain was evaluated using (Visual Analog Scale [VAS]). Two scales of Health-Related Quality-of-Life Questionnaire (Short-Form 36 Health Survey [SF-36]) were used for this study: the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS). Neck disability index (NDI) was used to evaluate chronic disability in activities of daily living. The patients completed a self-reported Patient Satisfaction with Results Survey.

Methods: Patients who had previous or redo surgeries, were diagnosed with myelopathy or had more than two-level ACDF surgeries were excluded, leaving a total of 58 patients. The mean follow-up was 37.2 months (range 12-54). Patients were divided into two groups for clinical outcome analyses according to the DOS: patients who had surgery within 6 months (n=29) or more than 6 months (n=29) after becoming symptomatic.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences in any demographic or clinical parameters among the patient groups. Controlling for preoperative scores, the patients who had surgery within 6 months reported significantly higher reduction (p=.04) in arm pain scores compared with the patients who waited more than 6 months. No significant differences were detected in postoperative neck pain VAS (p=.3), NDI (p=.06), SF-36 PCS (p=.08), and MCS (p=.8) scores.

Conclusions: Neck and upper extremity pain can be successfully treated conservatively. In those cases, when surgical intervention is pursued, patients with shorter DOS have better improvement in radiculopathy symptoms that is statistically significant.