Surgery and Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy Study
An explanation
For as serious as cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is, it's actually quite common. In fact, it's the most common cause of spinal cord dysfunction in people over 55.
The condition's symptoms, as described in the study from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, are varied; this often makes making a proper diagnosis challenging. Once diagnosed, surgery is a possible treatment option. But before this study, there wasn't much evidence validating surgery's effectiveness with CSM patients.
The study examined how well surgery treated patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy. The researchers checked in with the patients one year after their operations and found the patients had responded well to the surgery.
The researchers used specific tests to gauge how well surgery worked to relieve the symptoms of CSM. These tests measured a range of things, including how well the patients walked (disturbances in gait, or walking patterns, are common in cervical spondylotic myelopathy), how much their neck pain impacted their daily activities, and their quality of life after surgery.
The results of these tests showed that surgery vastly reduced the patients' symptoms and improved their quality of life.
