Migration of cervical spine screws to the sacral canal: a case report

Cervical open door laminoplasty is widely used in multilevel decompression, which is a motion-sparing decompression treatment option for multilevel cervical myelopathy. Implant distance migration in cervical laminoplasty has not been reported. A 61-year-old woman underwent cervical laminoplasty, three months postoperatively, she experienced left shoulder pain and left upper limb pain, and underwent cervical magnetic resonance imaging, which showed no abnormalities. She gradually developed dizziness, headache, unstable walking, incomplete urinary incontinence, and fluctuating neck lumps. The X-ray showed that the screws of the C7 lateral mass had disappeared and migrated to the sacral canal. The patient underwent cerebrospinal leakage repair and removal of the screws in the spinal canal. Displacement of fixators implanted into the spinal canal after cervical laminoplasty is a rare complication that can cause permanent neurological injury.