Clinical predictors and surgical outcomes following surgical treatment in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A prospective study

Background

CSM is the most common cause of spinal dysfunction in adults older than 55 years of age and surgery is the mainstay of treatment for patients with CSM.The objective of our study was to assess the outcome of patients operated for CSM by using m-JOA and Recovery rate using Hirabayashi formula and evaluate clinical factors predicting surgical outcomes in patients undergoing decompressive surgeries.

Methodology

Adult CSM patients fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled at two hospitals. Patients were followed prospectively for a minimum of 06 month, with mJOA score, recovery rate (using Hirabayashi formula) and Postoperative complications assessments. Possible clinical predictive factors were also assessed.

Results

There were 38 men and 19 women (mean age, 50.63 yr) enrolled in our study. 48 patients had anterior cervical procedure, 9 patients had posterior procedures.The mean mJOA scores at 6 months (13.33) and 1 year(14.74) after surgery were significantly higher than the mean preoperative mJOA (10.44) (P value = 0.01). 42(73.4 %)patients had recovery, 7 patients (11.9 %) remained the same while 8 (13.6 %) patients worsened. Average recovery rate was 36.59 ± 37.12 % in younger patients(<65yrs) and 2.4 ± 47.10 % in the group older than 65 years (P value = 0.043). Rate of recovery in patients with symptom duration of < 1 year was found to be better than those presented with symptom duration of > 1 year(39.11 % vs 15.54 %) with p-value = 0.035. Six patients had new neurologic deficit in the immediate postoperative period.

Conclusions

Surgical treatment of CSM was associated with significant improvement in mJOA and recovery rate at 6 and 12 months. Age and duration of symptom were highly predictive of surgical. Our study showed a high rate of immediate post op neurologic deterioration but other complications in our study were comparable with those in previously reported CSM series.