Posterior laminoforaminotomy for cervical radiculopathy

Cervical radiculopathy often improves with nonoperative management, but when nonoperative treatment fails, there are several surgical options. Both anterior cervical discectomy and fusion and posterior laminoforaminotomy have favorable results in the literature. Large randomized controlled trials that compare these 2 approaches are lacking, but there is data that posterior laminoforaminotomy has good results in treating patients with laterally based lesions causing cervical radiculopathy. Perhaps, the greatest potential advantage to the posterior approach is the ability to directly decompress the nerve root while preserving motion. Laminoforaminotomy can be done in a traditional open manner or through minimally invasive approaches. Both techniques have favorable results in alleviating pain, although there are potentially higher complication rates with minimally invasive procedures. Overall, clinical success has been reported in more than 90% of patients with recurrence rates between 3% and 7%.