Table 4.
Postoperative neurological improvement of the patients.
| Status | ASIA scale | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | A | B | C | D | E | |
| Preoperative | 98 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 53 | 29 |
| Postoperative short-term outcomes | 98 | |||||
| Worsened | 32 | 1 | 18 | 13 | ||
| Stable or improved | 66 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 35 | 16 |
| Postoperative long-term outcomes | 81 | |||||
| Worsened | 6 | 5 | 1 | |||
| Stable | 41 | 2 | 31 | 8 (pain)a | ||
| Improved | 34 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 13 (pain)a |
| Lost to follow-up | 17 | 2 | 8 | 7 | ||
a
Because there is no better condition than grade E by ASIA. We assigned grade E patients into the “stable” (no improvement in pain) or “improved” (pain relief or disappearance) conditions during long-term following up.