A Radiographic Comparison Between The Titanium Surgical Mesh And The Iliac Bone Autograft In Anterior Cervical Decompression And Fusion

Objective: To study the differences in the fusion rate, restoring lordosis and interverberal height between the titanium surgical mesh with AO titanium locking plate and the iliac bone autograft with AO titanium locking plate in ACDF(anterior cervical decompression and fusion).Methods: 72 cases of CSM(cervical spondylotic myelopathy) treated with anterior decompression, reconstruction and AO titanium locking plates fixation were included, 25 with titanium surgical mesh, 47 with iliac bone autograft. Preoperative, immediate postoperative and 9-18 months follow-up radiographs were taken, lordosis(kyphosis) of the fusion segment with Cobb's angle, lordosis(kyphosis) of cervical spine with D numerical value and interverberal height(HAB, height of anterior border and HPB, height of posterior border) were measured, and the data was compared statistically with student's t-test. Results: Fusion were reached in all cases during the mean follow-up 10.9 months(9-18 months). But there were significant differences between interverberal height of posterior border loses(P<0.01), also with Cobb's angle(P<0.01).Conclusion: Titanium surgical mesh is better than iliac bone autograft in maintaining interverbral height of posterior border; and they are same in fusion rate.