Measurement of long-term outcome in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy treated surgically

The Myelopathy Disability Index and the Neck Disability Index are widely used to assess outcome in cervical spine surgery. Short Form (SF) 36 is a generic measure of health which can be used to measure health gains across a wide variety of conditions. The aim of the current study is to assess long-term outcomes using these measures in a cohort of patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM).

Cohort study with prospective data collection. Patients with CSM being offered decompressive surgery were asked to complete a set of generic and condition-specific outcome measures. This was repeated post-operatively at 3, 12, 24 and 60 months. SF-36 was used as a generic outcome measure and the Myelopathy Index, Neck Disability Score and visual analogue scores for arm, neck and hand pain, paraesthesia and dysthaesia were used as condition-specific outcome measures.

Significant improvements in all outcome measures were seen in 70% of the cohort. For SF-36, pre-operative scores were lower than age-matched controls in all domains and significant improvements were seen 3 months following surgery. This improvement in outcome was maintained at 5 years follow-up in approximately two-thirds of those with initial improvement.

We have used generic and condition-specific outcome measures of health and shown that in patients with CSM treated surgically, up to 70% can expect improvement in their quality of life. These outcome measures are easy to collect and provide objective evidence of changes in quality of life and disability and can help quantify the potential health gains that can be achieved.