There are numerous surgical techniques described for cervical decompression for multilevel cervical stenosis. Cervical skip laminectomy is a new technique described by Japanese surgeons in 2000. The advantage of this procedure over the other conventional techniques is it addresses multilevel problem in a least traumatic way without need for instrumentation. It is also described to have lesser incidence of post operative axial symptoms, range of motion and loss of cervical lordosis.

We are presenting our prospective case series of 23 patients who had this procedure in our institution between 2002 and 2004. Of these 16 patients are at least 6 months from their operation. We performed clinical outcome measurements using SF12 questionnaires, pre and postoperative clinical assessment performed by independent surgeon and a specialist spinal physiotherapist. We also routinely performed pre and postoperative MRI scans to assess the adequacy of decompression (Done by our musculoskeletal radiologist).

Our study showed a good clinical and radiological outcome with this relatively simple new procedure. This has become our standard operation for our patients with multilevel cervical stenosis with cervical myelopathy.