Comparison of Cervical Laminectomy to Laminoplasty

Historically, cervical laminectomy has been proven to be effective in the treatment of symptomatic patients with cervical myelopathy. This standard procedure is employed to accomplish posterior decompression of the cervical spinal cord in patients with multi-level cervical spinal stenosis who have normal or near normal cervical spinal curvature and alignment without associated instability. Laminoplasty was developed in Japan as an alternative to the laminectomy procedure with the intent to reduce post-operative morbidity after dorsal cervical spinal cord decompression, neck pain and to maintain the relative stability of the cervical spine after multi-level decompression. The goal of both the laminoplasty and laminectomy procedures is to provide spinal cord decompression by enlargement of the spinal canal. A potential benefit of laminoplasty compared to laminectomy is to preserve stability and range of motion of the cervical spine without complete disruption/removal of the posterior laminae, spinous processes and interspinous ligamentous structures. Various authors have described different laminoplasty techniques; all preserve the lamina and expand the size of the spinal canal by fixing the freed or partially freed lamina in a more posterior position. The primary study hypothesis is that, patients treated with laminoplasty with ARCH fixation (Treatment Group) have clinical and radiographic outcomes as assessed by valid outcomes measures, is not inferior to patients treated with laminectomy (Control Group)