Patient outcomes (N = 80).
| Outcomes | N (%) |
| Surgical technique | |
| Stand-alone cages | 35 (43.8%) |
| Self-locking stand-alone cages | 45 (56.2%) |
| Follow-up, mo, median (IQR) | 22.5 (12–32.1) |
| Surgical complications | 2 (2.5%) |
| Postoperative dysphagia | |
| Transient (<1 month) | 16 (20%) |
| Long term | 4 (5%) |
| Fusion achieved | 68 (85%) |
| Adjacent segment degeneration | 5 (6.3%) |
| Subsidence | 26 (32.5%) |
| Required new surgery | 6 (7.5%) |
| Pseudoarthrosis/subsidence | 2 (2.5%) |
| Adjacent segment degeneration | 4 (5%) |
| Postoperativea | Last Evaluationb | |
| Outcome measure | ||
| VAS cervical Pain | 4.26 (0.001) | 4.6 (0.147) |
| VAS radicular pain | 3.91 (0.001) | 4.3 (0.1) |
| Myelopathy symptoms (Nurick 1) | 15 (18.7%) | 14 (17.5%) |
| NDI | 27.4 (0.001) | 29.33 (0.07) |
| JOA | 16.97 (0.001) | 16.95 (0.7) |
Abbreviations: IQR, interquartile range; JOA, Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scale; NDI, Neck Disability Index; VAS, visual analog scale.
Note: Data presented as n (%) unless otherwise indicated. Statistically significant differences are shown in boldface.
↵a Evaluation on first postoperative month; in parenthesis, P value of independent samples t test comparing preoperative evaluation vs postoperative evaluation.
↵b Last follow-up evaluation; in parenthesis, P value of independent samples t test comparing postoperative evaluation vs last follow-up evaluation.