Treatment of cervical canal stenosis by decompression and anterior fusion.

During the period from 1969 to 1985, 160 patients with pain of the neck or neurological disturbances occurring in cervical canal stenosis were treated surgically. Good results - expressed as relief of pain and diminution or disappearance of neurological disorders - were obtained in 72% of cases. The best results were obtained in patients with slight neurological defects, in rather young persons, and in the early stage of disease. However, the good results obtained in 57% of patients older than 60 years encouraged the author to employ the method in treating older patients for whom other methods of treatment were ineffective.