Head-neck Coordination Analysis After Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Dorsal Cervical Spine

Comparison of Open vs Minimally Invasive Dorsal Approaches for Foraminotomy and Laminoplasty in the Cervical Spine Through Performance of Head-neck-coordination Analysis

To proof patients' benefit of minimally invasive surgery in the dorsal cervical spine an apparatus to examine head-neck-coordination was constructed.

Two different surgical techniques will be compared:

Laminoplasty: open approach vs minimally invasive surgery (MIS)-approach; Foraminotomy: open approach vs MIS-approach. Each patient will be tested before surgery, postoperative as well as 3 and 12 month follow-up.

Hypothesis is that patients after MIS-approaches perform better in their head-neck-coordination as patients with open approaches.

Inclusion Criteria:

• radicular or myelopathic compression syndrome in the cervical spine

Exclusion Criteria:

• neurological diseases with influence on the neuromuscular function
• previous surgery on the cervical spine