Population characteristics of young patients underwent surgery for cervical spondylosis and their correlation with cervical intervertebral disc degeneration

English Keywords:Cervical spondylosis  The youth  Cervical disc degeneration

English Abstract:

  【Abstract】 Objectives: To analyze the population characteristics of young patients underwent surgery for cervical spondylosis and their correlation with the degree of cervical disc degeneration (CDD). Methods: The patients between 18-40 years old who underwent surgery for cervical spondylosis in Ningbo No.6 Hospital from September 2010 to September 2020 were retrospectively collected. Statistics were made on the gender, age, body mass index (BMI), preoperative VAS score for neck pain, smoking or not, drinking or not, phobbing occupation or not, preoperative VAS score for neck pain, operation segments, operation numbers in different years were recorded. The score of CDD was evaluated by three indexes as following: the loss of height loss of intervertebral space, osteophytes in front of vertebral body and endplate sclerosis. Spearman correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlations between CDD orits three indexes and the parameters including age, gender, BMI, smoking, drinking, phobbing occupation, VAS score of neck pain. Results: A total of 108 young patients who met the inclusion criteria were treated in the past 10 years, including 62 males and 46 females, with an age of 33.9±4.2 years and a BMI of 25.02±2.40kg/m2. There were 28 patients with smoking habits, 39 patients with alcohol consumption history and 68 patients with long-term phobbing occupation. The proportion of cervical surgery in young patients of the year increased from 5.6% in 2010 to 8.5% in 2020. The total score of CDD in young patients undergoing surgery was 2.73±1.20, and most of whom were of mild degeneration. Loss of vertebral space height was observed in 93.5% of patients, osteophytes in the anterior vertebral body was observed in 62.9% of patients, and endplate sclerosis was observed in 50.9% of patients. The total CDD score was moderately correlated with age and smoking habits(rs=0.41 and 0.69 respectively, P<0.01), with no significant correlation with other factors(P＞0.05). The intervertebral height loss score was moderately correlated with age and long-term phobbing occupation(rs=0.53 and 0.41 respectively, P<0.01), the it had no significant correlation with other factors(P＞0.05). The score of osteophytes in anterior vertebral body was moderately positively correlated with age and smoking (rs=0.51 and 0.58 respectively, P<0.01), but not with other factors (P>0.05). The endplate sclerosis score was moderately positively correlated with age and smoking (rs=0.31 and 0.54 respectively, P<0.01), but there was no significant correlation with other factors(P>0.05). Conclusions: The majority CDD score in young patients underwent surgery for cervical spondylosiswas mild degeneration, the imaging results were followed as height loss, osteophytes and endplate sclerosis. The loss of intervertebral height and the formation of osteophytes were positively correlated with long-term phobbing occupation and smoking.