Swallowing problems after anterior cervical spine surgery

  Dysphagia is one of the common complications of anterior cervical spine surgery, mostly occurring in the early postoperative period, with an incidence of 3.0%-88.8% reported in the literature.   Dysphagia can be diagnosed in patients undergoing anterior cervical spine surgery when they have symptoms such as weakness in lowering the throat, food obstruction or reflux, foreign body sensation, choking and recurrent aspiration when ingesting solid or liquid food for more than 3 weeks after surgery. There are no uniform criteria for the diagnosis of dysphagia, and most studies are based on the subjective feelings of patients. It can be classified according to its severity: none, mild, moderate and severe. Patients who have never experienced dysphagia are diagnosed as “none”; when dysphagia occurs only occasionally and does not affect the patient’s life, it is diagnosed as “mild”; when dysphagia is more likely to occur during the intake of certain specific foods, it is diagnosed as The diagnosis is “moderate” when swallowing difficulty occurs frequently with most foods; “severe” when swallowing difficulty occurs frequently with most foods.  Prognosis: Most patients with dysphagia after anterior cervical spine surgery have mild symptoms and can recover on their own through dietary adjustment (liquid, semi-liquid diet, less frequent meals, etc.) without special treatment. For a small number of patients with obvious symptoms that affect the quality of life, the application of hormones can be considered for a short time. In the case of severe persistent dysphagia, which affects the patient’s basic eating activities and can lead to pneumonia due to aspiration, surgical removal of internal fixation may be considered if necessary.