Osteophytosis of the cervical spine in South African blacks and whites

Cervical vertebral columns (214) of adult human skeletons belonging to South African blacks and whites were examined for the presence of osteophytes. It was found that the cervical vertebrae of the black samples were significantly less affected by degenerative changes than in the whites. This finding has specific clinical implications in that the distribution of osteophytosis in the blacks also follows a different pattern than in the whites; osteophytes appear to affect either the vertebral body or apophysial joint facets in the cervical vertebrae of the blacks. In the whites, in sharp contrast, both sites are often affected on the same vertebra, which in life may result in a pincer-like entrapment of the spinal nerve root and/or vertebral artery. Consideration is given to the possible physiological and/or functional causes of the differences in distribution and pattern of development of osteophytes in the cervical spines of the two population groups.