Early and medium-term profile of modified JOA score for cervical spondylotic myelopathy after surgery

English Keywords:Cervical spondylotic myelopathy  Outcome assessment  Modified JOA score

English Abstract:

  【Abstract】 Objectives: To investigate the short-term and mid-term profile of modified JOA(modified Japanese Orthopedic Association) score following surgery for cervical spondylotic myelopathy in a cohort study. Methods: The sample comprised 113 patients who underwent surgical treatment for cervical spondylotic myelopathy in our hospital between February 2008 and November 2011. mJOA score which was used to evaluate the neurologic dysfunction was recorded before surgery, 3 months after surgery, 1 year after surgery and at final follow-up. The feature of neurologic dysfunction before surgery and the profile of mJOA after surgery were analyzed. Each patient′s mJOA score peak time and contribution of different time points to the total mJOA score were analyzed by Logistic regression. Results: The follow-up time was 24-60 months(mean 32.7±10.8 months). The mJOA score improved from 11.8±2.9 before surgery to 14.5±2.2 at 3 months after surgery, 15.1±2.1 at 1 year after surgery, and 15.2±2.3(P＜0.01) at final follow-up. mJOA reached its maximum at 16.7±4.1 months(3-36 months) after surgery. Bivariate logistic regression showed that different part of mJOA contributed variously to the recovery rate of mJOA and motor function improvement contributed more than sensory improvement at three different follow-ups. Conclusions: Patients benefit from surgery, motor function improvement contributes more to mJOA score and mJOA reachs its maximum at 16.7 months after surgery.