Functional assessment of patients with cervical myelopathy who underwent surgical treatment

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate and correlate the functional response of patients with cervical myelopathy with the current clinical scores in patients who underwent surgical treatment. METHODS: We analyzed medical records of 34 patients with cervical myelopathy who underwent four different types of surgery. All patients were evaluated preoperatively and postoperatively with the application of the JOA and Nurick questionnaires. RESULTS: Functional clinical improvement was statistically significant. The mean preoperative JOA was 8.5 ± 3.06 and 10.7 ± 3.9 in the postoperative; Nurick was 3.2 ± 1.1 preoperatively and 2.8 ± 1.3 postoperatively. CONCLUSION: There is benefit with the surgical procedure in patients with cervical myelopathy. The neurological function after surgery depends on the previous function (the higher the duration of the previous symptoms, the greater the progression of the disease and, therefore, worse the neurological function) and the age is not a relevant factor of improvement, as already shown in other series. The clinical functional improvement of patients is visible with surgical treatment, regardless of surgical technique.