Usefulness of Intraoperative Computed Tomography in Complication Management after Spine Surgery

Anterior cervical spine operations involve decompression of the spinal canal and cervical nerve roots by discectomy or corpectomy in combination with fusion via cage or replacement of a vertebral body. Bailey and Badgley,1 Smith and Robinson,2 and Cloward3 introduced the technique first in the 1950s and the early 1960s. The reported rates of clinical success in the literature are high4 and low-complication rates described, such as wound infection (0.4–2%), cerebral spinal fluid leak (1%), hematoma (1%), hoarseness or dysphagia (9%), nonfusion5 or accelerated adjacent disc degeneration (2.9%).6 One of the most serious adverse events associated with cervical spine surgery is a postoperative spinal epidural hematoma (SEH), compressing the cervical spinal cord. Although rates of SEH after lumbar spine surgery are reported in 33 to 100%7–9 on imaging, most of them remain asymptomatic. Reported rates of symptomatic SEH after anterior decompressive cervical spine surgery vary