As the mean age of population increase, the percentage of population with cervical spine disorders invariably increases. Cervical spine surgery improves outcomes in select patients with cervical spine pathology. With newer technologies and surgical techniques, there has been a significant improvement in cervical spine patient outcomes in the recent years. Most operative cervical pathologies can be treated by anterior [ACDF, ACCF, TDR, etc.] or by posterior approach [Laminectomy with or without instrumentation, OC fusion, Post. C1, C2 fixation, etc.]. Clinical decision making and evidence-based medicine makes up a huge part in management of cervical spine cases, however generating high quality data in spine surgery is plagued with unique challenges.

Currently most of the clinical research in spine consider a follow-up in a range of 2-5 years. Long term effects of surgical intervention on the spine invariably lead to altered biomechanics and kinematics in the spine³. Problems like adjacent segment degeneration (ASD) are a known entity to occur in a significant number of cases on a longer follow-up. Longer term studies might be giving a better insight in the effects that a surgery might have had on the patients

Another dimension which is rarely taken into consideration in studies is the learning curve any institution invariably goes through in its process of maturation. Similar surgical candidates operated on by the same surgeon 10 years apart might have significant differences in outcomes, due to evolution of surgeon capabilities, resources and patient management protocols over time.

We have been privileged enough to cater to large volumes of spine patients in our center, and it has also enabled us to implement some enabling technologies, which include the use of intraoperative CT scans, navigation, use of ultrasonic bone scalpel, intraoperative neuromonitoring and latest improvements in surgically implanted materials just to name a few. Apart from improvements in OT capabilities, we were also able to develop resources in data management, like electronic medical records (EMR) and picture archiving and communication system (PACS). That along with meticulous protocols of data entry has enabled us to have access to vast amounts of clinical patient data.

Proper analysis of this data can provide us with insights not only of patient outcomes but also of learning curves over time, unique complication and ways of managing them, and how enabling technologies might have improved surgical outcomes.

Objective of the study:

 Our goal for this project is to do a retrospective analysis of all the patients operated for cervical spine at our institute and assess outcomes and various other parameters over time.