Diabetes does not worsen outcomes of cervical laminoplasty

(HealthDay)—Patients with or without diabetes experienced similar outcomes of laminoplasty for cervical spondylotic myelopathy, according to research published in the Feb. 1 issue of Spine.

Masaaki Machino, M.D., of the Chubu Rosai Hospital in Nagoya, Japan, and colleagues prospectively analyzed data for 505 consecutive patients (105 with diabetes and 400 without diabetes) with cervical spondylotic myelopathy to compare the outcomes of laminoplasty for patients with and without diabetes.

The researchers found that the mean Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores before and after surgery, respectively, were 10.1 and 13.1 points for patients with diabetes and 10.8 and 13.9 points for patients without diabetes. Compared with the group without diabetes, the diabetes group had significantly lower preoperative and postoperative JOA scores and lower recovery rate of JOA scores (47.3 versus 53.6 percent; P < 0.05). However, no significant difference was observed between the groups for mean achieved JOA scores (3.0 for those with diabetes and 3.1 for those without diabetes) or postoperative complication rates.

"Diabetic and nondiabetic patients experienced similar benefits from laminoplasty for cervical spondylotic myelopathy, which was probably because of strict blood glucose level control enforced by diabetes specialists during the perioperative period," the authors write.

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