[Manual therapy combined with posterior percutaneous endoscopic cervical decompression for the treatment of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the clinical efficacy and safety of manual therapy combined with posterior percutaneous endoscopic cervical decompression(PECD) in the treatment of intractable cervical spondylotic radiculopathy.

METHODS

From May 2016 to May 2018, 23 CSR patients who responded poorly to conservative treatment for at least 6 weeks underwent the combination management. Firstly, the patients received the posterior percutaneous endoscopic cervical decompression routine care for the following 4 weeks and manual therapy for another 4 weeks. A total of 23 patients were followed up, including 14 males and 9 females, the age ranged from 29 to 78 years old with an average of (50.30±12.28) years, the course of disease was 3 to 24 months with an average of (9.74±5.76) months. The lesion segment involved C in 4 cases, C in 13 cases, C in 6 cases. The visual analogue scale (VAS), neck disability index (NDI), changes of cervical physiological curvature and interbody stability, adverse events were observed before and after operation. The follow-up time points were before operation, 1 day after operation and 1, 3 and 6 months after operation.

RESULTS

All patients successfully completed the operation and manual treatment for 4 to 8 times. Among the 29 cases, 23 patients were followed up for more than 6 months. There was no spinal cord and nerve root injury during the treatment and follow-up. Operation time was from 80 to 120 min with a median of 90 min;intraoperative blood loss was from 35 to 80 ml with a median of 50 ml. NDI, VAS of neck, shoulder and arm each period after operation were significantly lower than those before PECD(<0.05), while there were no significant improvement in cervical physiological curvature and target segment intervertebral space height(>0.05);there was no significant change in interbody stability (>0.05). After received the manual therapy, NDI significantly decreased (<0.05), however, there was no significant difference in VAS of neck, shoulder and arm, physiological curvature of cervical spine and intervertebral space height of target segment compared with that before manual treatment (>0.05);there was no significant change in interbody stability (>0.05).

CONCLUSION

Manual therapy combined with PECD in the treatment of intractable cervical spondylotic radiculopathy can not only quickly improve the symptoms, but also alleviate the residual symptoms after PECD safely and effectively, and can not cause obvious signs of accelerated instability of cervical adjacent segments in the short term.