[Role of vertebral hyperostosis in cervical myelopathies]

The authors analysed the case histories of 40 patients with cervical myelopathy and were struck by the frequency of associated vertebral hyperostosis (Forestier and Rotès-Quérol disease). They found 17 cases in which dorsal vertebral hyperostosis was indiscutable and in which there was acquired stenosis of the cervical canal related to the bony proliferations that had developed on the anterior face of the cervical canal and to the type of cells described by Forestier and Rotes-Querol on the anterior and lateral faces of the vertebral column. According to the present authors these posterior growths occurred in a site that has not previously been described for hyperostosis. These growths are likened to those observed by Japanese neurosurgeons since 1960. Their particular interest concerns their role in pathology.