Most degenerative cervical myelopathy remains undiagnosed, particularly amongst the elderly: modelling the prevalence of degenerative cervical myelopathy in the United Kingdom.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a poorly recognised form of spinal cord injury which arises when degenerative changes in the cervical spine injure the spinal cord. Timely surgical intervention is critical to preventing disability. Despite this, DCM is frequently undiagnosed, and may be misconstrued as normal ageing. For a disease associated with age, we hypothesised that the elderly may represent an underdiagnosed population. This study aimed to evaluate this hypothesis by comparing age-stratified estimates of DCM prevalence based on spinal cord compression (SCC) data with hospital-diagnosed prevalence in the UK.

Methods

We queried the UK Hospital Episode Statistics database for admissions with a primary diagnosis of DCM. Age-stratified incidence rates w

SUBMITTER: Grodzinski B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9813047 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature