Can Morphometric Analysis of Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy Be a Tool for Surgical Outcome Prediction

ABSTRACT Background: Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is one of the leading causes of degenerative cervical myelopathy and the most common cause of spinal cord dysfunction in the elderly worldwide. Although there is emerging evidence that most patients improve after surgery, the key clinical and imaging factors predicting outcome remain uncertain. Our purpose is to evaluate preoperative and postoperative morphometric parameters on magnetic resonance imaging and their relation with neurological outcome at discharge and at 12-month follow-up. Methods: Morphometric features (volume, area, and antero-posterior diameter of the major stenotic section) were acquired by manual segmentation of the spinal canal using OsiriX open-source software and confronted with neurological outcome (at discharge and 12 months after surgery) using Nurick9s scale. Results: Fifty-five patients (21 females and 34 males) with a mean age of 64.89 ± 11.95 years were analyzed. Recovery ratio was 2.44% ± 2.40% at discharge and 11.74% ± 2.50% at follow-up. Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference (P Conclusions: Acquisition of morphometric features might be useful in predicting surgical outcome in patients with CSM. This information can be used to inform patients of their long-term postoperative prognosis in the future with more accurate and standardized measurements.