Intraoperative Use of Topical Retropharyngeal Steroids for Dysphagia after Anterior Cervical Fusion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Perioperative local retropharyngeal steroid administration as an adjunct to anterior cervical spine surgery reduces the incidence and severity of dysphagia compared with placebo control. However, future high-quality randomized controlled studies could incorporate nonsubjective dysphagia measures and long-term follow-up on the occurrence of associated complications or other side effects.