Highlights ■ Posterior cervical spine surgery showed an overall complication rate of 22.3%, mainly surgery-related. ■ Surgical site infection (6.2%) and late reoperation (4.3%) were the most common complications. ■ The average patient age varied by etiology, being the lowest in neoplastic cases (34.4 years) and the highest in degenerative cases (55.7 years). ■ No statistically significant associations were found between complications and patient characteristics, except for a trend toward more complications in urgent surgeries (p=0.085). ■ Mortality was 3.7%, […]