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OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the impact of sarcopenia diagnosed on the basis of the neck muscle index on the clinical efficacy of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) surgery in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) 2 years after surgery. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 93 patients who underwent ACDF surgery for CSM between March 2019 and May 2023 was conducted. Patients meeting the sarcopenia diagnostic criteria of the C3 paraspinal muscle index (C3MI) for males and the sternocleidomastoid muscle index (SCMI) for females were divided into a sarcopenia group (38 patients) and a nonsarcopenia group (55 patients). Differences in the perioperative indicators, imaging data, and clinical efficacy scores between the two groups were compared. RESULTS: Both groups of patients successfully underwent surgery, and no severe complications occurred postoperatively. In terms of baseline data and perioperative indicators, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of sex, age, body mass index (BMI), intraoperative blood loss, surgical duration, preoperative odontoid incidence angle (OI), preoperative cervical spine range of motion (ROM), or preoperative adjacent segment ROM of the surgical segment (P > 0.05). Compared with preoperative values, both groups of patients demonstrated significant improvements in the T1 slope (T1s), C2‒C7 Cobb angle, C0‒C2 Cobb angle, sagittal segmental angle (SSA), and average surgical segment disc height (ASDH) immediately after surgery (P 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Sarcopenia can have an adverse effect on pain relief and functional recovery in CSM patients undergoing ACDF surgery over a 2-year postoperative period. Clinicians should prioritize the assessment and intervention of sarcopenia in such patients to improve their long-term clinical outcomes following surgery.
Gong et al. (Thu,) studied this question.