At 33.8 percent, the prevalence of concurrent cervical spinal cord compression in adult spinal deformity patients is relatively high, and there are several predictive factors, according to a study in Spine.
Four things to know:
1. Of 121 patients with ASD, 41 patients demonstrated significant CSCC on MRI. Intramedullary T2 hyper-intensity, or myelomalacia, was present in 6.6 percent of patients.
2. Of the 41 CSCC patients, 35 were asymptomatic or had difficult-to-detect myelopathy. Significant CSCC was most commonly observed at the C4/5 level.
3. Four patients underwent cervical decompression and fusion prior to thoracolumbar reconstruction.
4. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that older age, increased body mass index and higher pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis mismatch independently predicted CSCC grade.