Screw loosening and subsequent expectoration without anatomical defect following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for cervical myelopathy: illustrative case
Hardware expectoration is a rare complication of ACDF. The lack of an esophageal or laryngeal defect could possibly be explained by gradual healing of the injury given the chronicity of his problem. A patient with screw loosening after ACDF should be carefully monitored and evaluated postoperatively due to the potential for significant morbidity and mortality from screw migration and expectoration. https://thejns.org/doi/10.3171/CASE24340.
Authors
- Nathan Esplin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5716-2041)
- John Bolger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6383-3930)
- Alexander Kwong-Tak Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1582-7938)
- Peter G. Zaki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4900-3643)
- Shahed Elhamdani
- Nisha Busch
- Seung Won Jeong
- Chen Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8068-2109)
- Cody Woodhouse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1059-2981)
Institutions
- Allegheny Health Network (US)
- Drexel University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Neurosurgery Case Lessons
- Published
- 2025-04-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3171/case24340
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Cervical and Thoracic Myelopathy
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.01
Funders
- Allegheny Health Network