ArticleArchives of orthopaedic and trauma surgery2026
Level-dependent changes in cervical multifidus composition following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: bridging quantitative MRI and clinical perspectives.
Article in Archives of orthopaedic and trauma surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
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
introductionFatty infiltration (FI) of the cervical paraspinal muscles is associated with greater disease severity and less favorable outcomes in degenerative cervical spine disease. However, longitudinal data on whether muscle composition changes following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) are scarce. This study aimed to evaluate changes in FI and functional cross-sectional area (fCSA) of the cervical multifidus and rotatores after ACDF and to assess whether these changes differ across surgical levels. MATERIALS AND
methodsThis single-center retrospective study analyzed patients who underwent ACDF for degenerative cervical stenosis between 2015 and 2018. Patients were included if both preoperative and postoperative cervical spine MRI (obtained 1-5 years after surgery) were available. The multifidus and rotatores colli were segmented bilaterally on T2-weighted axial images. Measurements were categorized by position within the fusion construct as upper (most cranial fused vertebra), middle (intervening vertebrae), and lower (most caudal fused vertebra) levels. FI and fCSA were quantified using Otsu thresholding. P-values were adjusted for multiple testing using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure.
resultsThirty-five patients met inclusion criteria (median age 58 years, 40% female, 1-4 fused levels). Bilateral FI decreased significantly at the lower level (52.1 ± 15.4% vs. 45.0 ± 14.8%, adjusted p = 0.039), with no significant changes at the upper (adjusted p = 0.858) or middle level (adjusted p = 0.354). Bilateral fCSA decreased significantly at the middle level (165.2 [119.4-196.3] vs. 109.4 [92.0-171.6] mm², adjusted p = 0.018), with no significant changes at the upper (adjusted p = 0.194) or lower level (adjusted p = 0.382)
conclusionsACDF was associated with level-dependent changes in cervical multifidus composition, including a reduction in FI at the lower surgical level and a loss of fCSA at the middle level. These findings highlight that postoperative muscle remodeling varies by position within the fusion construct, which may have implications for the development of level-specific, targeted postoperative rehabilitation strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.