Cervical myelopathy. current diagnostic and treatment strategies

Abstract

Cervical myelopathy is a varied clinical syndromes resulting from spinal cord dysfunction. Underlying causes are numerous, but spondylosis at one or more levels is the most common etiology. Natural history studies have demonstrated a variable clinical course with gradual neurologic deterioration in a majority of patients. While prospective clinical comparisons are limited, existing literature suggests that operative management reliably arrests the progression of myelopathy and may lead to functional improvement in a majority of patients. The selection of surgical procedures must be carefully individualized based on specific clinical and radiographic factors. Whereas anterior decompression and fusion procedures at one or two motion segments have predictable results, procedures involving three or more levels are associated with increased morbidity. Newer techniques for the treatment of multilevel cervical myelopathy include anterior decompression with 360-degree fusion, hybrid corpectomy/anterior cervical discectomy and fusion techniques and the use of dynamic anterior cervical plates. An alternative technique for patients with a lordotic sagittal alignment is laminoplasty, which has a proven track record of long-term good to excellent results.