SynthesisEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2022
The retropharyngeal steroid use during operation on the fusion rate and dysphagia after ACDF? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- How Common is Dysphagia After Anterior Cervical Spine Surgery, What Drives it, and Can it be Prevented? An Umbrella Review of Systematic Evidence.Global spine journal · 2026Review
- Article
- Investigating the use of peri-operative systemic steroid administration in anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) - A systematic review.Journal of orthopaedics · 2025Review
- A deep learning framework for vertebral morphometry and Cobb angle measurement with external validation.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2022Article
- Effect of perioperative steroids application on dysphagia, fusion rate, and visual analogue scale (VAS) following anterior cervical spine surgery: A meta-analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials (RCTs).Frontiers in surgery · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the effects of retropharyngeal steroid use during operation on bony fusion and dysphagia rate after ACDF.
methodsWe searched the electronic literature database of PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library published from January 1990 to February 2020. The size of each group, mean age, proportion of female patients, dysphagia events and fusion rate at one-year follow-up were extracted. RevMan 5.3 was used for the meta-analysis.
resultsA total of eight studies including six RCTs and two case-control studies met the inclusion criteria. This meta-analysis showed that retropharyngeal steroids could achieve significantly lower dysphagia rates (p < 0.001), higher fusion rates (p = 0.01), less moderate and severe events rates according to the Bazaz stratification (p < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference between two groups regarding operation time (p = 0.67), blood loss (p = 0.33), VAS scores at one day (p = 0.90) and VAS scores at two weeks (p = 0.80).
conclusionsRetropharyngeal steroid use is an effective method in reducing dysphagia rate, severe dysphagia rate and increasing fusion rate during ACDF surgery, without increasing operating time, blood loss or VAS scores at one day and two weeks. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE I: Diagnostic: individual cross-sectional studies with the consistently applied reference standard and blinding.
Indexed as
Identifiers
34741220What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.