There is evidence that preoperative physical fitness impacts surgical outcomes, specifically preceding abdominal, cardiovascular and spine surgery. To our knowledge, there are no papers on self-reported exercise frequency as a predictor of cervical spine surgery outcomes. Our objectives were to quantify self-report of exercise frequency in cervical spine surgery patients, and to elucidate if self-reported exercise prior to surgery confers less pain, improved health state and/or less disability post-surgery. We performed a retrospective review of prospectively collected data from the Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network (CSORN) Database from the time of its inception. Inclusion criteria specified all elective cervical surgery patients over 18 years old with degenerative pathology who proceeded to surgery and completed the pre- and post-operative outcomes measures up to 24 months post surgery (n=460). Outcome measures were visual analog scales (VAS) for neck and arm pain, Neck Disability Index (NDI), and EuroQOL score at baseline and 3, 12 and 24 months post-op. Exercise frequency was self-reported as “none” (n=212) versus “some” (n=248). These groups were further categorized into “none due to physical limitations”, “none” (not due to physical limitations), those to exercised “once or less per week” and those that exercised “twice or more per week”. Student's t-tests were used to compare the mean scores of the outcome measures, and analysis of variance for subgroup comparisons, with results considered significant at p < 0 .05. At baseline, 56% of total patients reported exercise prior to surgery, of which 73% reported doing so twice or more per week. Of the 44% reporting no exercise, 74% could not exercise due to physical limitations. Those who reported “some” exercise had more favorable VAS neck and arm pain scores pre-operatively (neck: 5.55 vs 6.11, p < 0 .001) (arm: 5.69 vs 6.04, p=0.011), but no difference at 3 and 24 months post-operatively. Significantly lower NDI scores and higher EuroQOL Index scores were seen in the exercise group compared to the no exercise group pre-operatively (NDI: 39 vs 48, p < 0 .001) (EuroQOL: 0.60 vs 0.50 p < 0 .001) as well as at 3, 12, and 24 months post-op (NDI: 24 vs 31, p=0.007) (EuroQOL: 0.75 vs 0.68, p=0.001). Further subgroup analysis demonstrated that compared to the “no exercise due to physical limitation” group, the “twice or more” exercise group showed favorable NDI and EuroQOL scores up to 24 months post-op (NDI: 24.32 vs 32.33, p=0.001) (EuroQOL: 0.76 vs 0.66, p=0.001), whereas the “once or less times per week” group no longer demonstrated any significant difference at 24 months (NDI: 28.79 vs 32.33, p=1) (EuroQOL: 0.73 vs 0.66, p=0.269). Self-reported exercise prior to cervical spine surgery does not predict improved long-term neck and arm pain at 2 years post-op. However, self-reported exercise does demonstrate less disability and improved health state at baseline and up to 2 years post-op and this relationship is dose dependent

Background. There have been limited published reports on the clinical results of cervical artificial disc replacement. Goffin et al reported a 90% rate of good to excellent results at 1 to 2 yrs after Bryan disc replacement. Wigfield et al reported a 46% improvement in pain and 31% improvement in disability 2 yrs after Prestige cervical disc replacement. Objectives. The study was designed to determine whether new functional cervical disc prosthesis can provide improvement in the ability to perform activities of daily living, decrease pain and segmental motion. Methods. All patients who had Prestige cervical disc replacement over last 2yrs 3 months were identified. Oswestry disability index score and SF36 Quality of life instrument were administered to each patient. Site specific pain scores were obtained using visual analogue scale. Clinical and operative details were reviewed and correlated. Results. 35 Patients underwent 48 Prestige cervical disc replacement during study period. There was 48%, 54% and 70% improvement in Oswestry disability index at 6 weeks, 6 months and 19 months follow-ups respectively. There was significant improvements in both neck and arm pain during immediate post op period and during further follow-ups. There was one neck wound haematoma and one left sided Horner's syndrome as complications. Conclusion. Anterior cervical disc replacement is a viable surgical alternative to fusion for cervical disc degenerative disease and herniation with preservation of motion and alignment without compromising clinical outcomes. At least 5yrs follow-up will be needed to assess the long term functionality of the prosthesis and protective influence on the adjacent levels

Background. The factors that are considered to be associated with successful clinical outcome fallowing cervical arthroplasty surgery are patient selection, absence of facet joint changes and lack of pre-operative kyphosis. Even though many studies have cited the pre-operative demographic details of their patient groups, the effect of associated psychological co-morbidities (Depression/Anxiety), smoking history, gender, social benefits and employment status on the clinical outcome measures have not been reported. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of pre-operative patient characteristics on the clinical outcomes following cervical disc replacement. Methods. We included 126 patients who underwent single or multiple level cervical arthroplasty in our unit were included in the study. The clinical outcome measures such as Visual Analogue Score for neck pain (VAS-NP) and arm pain (VAS-AP); Neck disability Index (NDI), Hospital depression and anxiety scale and Bodily pain component of Short Form 36 questionnaires (SF-36 P) were recorded pre and post operatively. Statistical analysis was completed using SPSS 16.0 statistical package (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). Results. There were 60 males and 63 females. Average duration of follow up was 18 months (Range 10–51). Out of 123 patients, 37 patients had a history of anxiety/depression, 25 patients gave history of smoking, 64 were actively working at the time of operation and 27 were receiving social benefits. We have found that gender; smoking status, associated co-morbidities, working and benefit status had no statistically significant contribution to clinical outcome measures in the follow up period. Conclusion. This is has been a first ever attempt to analyse the affect these psychosocial factors on the clinical outcomes following cervical arthroplasty. In our study, contrary to studies related lumbar surgeries, we conclude that there is no statistically significant contribution of associated psychosocial factors on the clinical outcomes in the early follow up period

Introduction. In the last decade, single level cervical arthroplasty has proven its efficacy as one of the surgical treatment option for for patients suffering from cervical degenerative disc disease. Recent published reports on multilevel cervical arthroplasty using single implants have shown statistically significant results when compared to single level surgery. The aim of this study is to compare the clinical outcomes of multilevel cervical arthroplasty to single level cervical arthroplasty, when more than one type of implants were used. Methods. This is a prospective study of consecutive patients who presented to our unit in between June 2006 and November 2009. The maximum follow-up period was 51 months (mean=18 months). Several types of cervical arthroplasty devices have been used in this study. The clinical outcome measures such as Visual Analogue Score for neck pain (VAS-NP) and arm pain (VAS-AP); Neck disability Index (NDI) and the Bodily pain component of Short Form 36 questionnaires were recorded pre and post operatively. After confirming the normality of the data appropriate parametric (paired t-test) were used to assess the statistical significance (p< 0.05) between pre and post-operative values. Two sample T-test was used to assess the significance between the differences in mean scores between each group. Results. A total of 105 patients (37 single level, 68 multi-level) were included in the study. Mean age of patients was 51 years (Range 32–80) with Male: Female ratio of 9:10. All clinical outcome measures showed statistically significant improvement in the post-operative period in single as well as multilevel group. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the improvement in between single and multilevel surgeries. Conclusions. Our study results clearly demonstrate that multilevel cervical arthroplasty offers the similar clinical outcome when compared to single level surgery, despite using different type of implant in multilevel surgeries