Predicting Outcomes After Surgical Decompression for Mild Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Moving Beyond the mJOA to...

Patients with mild degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) represent a heterogeneous population, and indications for surgical decompression remain controversial.

To dissociate patient phenotypes within the broader population of mild DCM associated with degree of impairment in baseline quality of life (QOL) and surgical outcomes.

This was a post hoc analysis of patients with mild DCM (modified Japanese Orthopedic Association [mJOA] 15-17) enrolled in the AOSpine CSM-NA/CSM-I studies. A k-means clustering algorithm was applied to baseline QOL (Short Form-36 [SF-36]) scores to separate patients into 2 clusters. Baseline variables and surgical outcomes (change in SF-36 scores at 1 yr) were compared between clusters. A k-nearest neighbors (kNN) algorithm was used to evaluate the ability to classify patients into the 2 clusters by significant baseline clinical variables.

One hundred eighty-five patients were eligible. Two groups were generated by k-means clustering. Cluster 1 had a greater proportion of females (44% vs 28%, P = .029) and symptoms of neck pain (32% vs 11%, P = .001), gait difficulty (57% vs 40%, P = .025), or weakness (75% vs 59%, P = .041). Although baseline mJOA correlated with neither baseline QOL nor outcomes, cluster 1 was associated with significantly greater improvement in disability (P = .003) and QOL (P < .001) scores following surgery. A kNN algorithm could predict cluster classification with 71% accuracy by neck pain, motor symptoms, and gender alone.

We have dissociated a distinct patient phenotype of mild DCM, characterized by neck pain, motor symptoms, and female gender associated with greater impairment in QOL and greater response to surgery.