Clinical significance of MRI score in the choice of surgical approach to multi-level cervical spondylotic myelopathy

[Objective]To establish a standard of MRI score and to explore its clinical significance for treatment of the multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy(MCSM).[Method]One hundred ninety-four MCSM cases with diferent procedures from January 2004 to November 2007 were retrospectively analyzed,who were divided into three groups:anterior approach,combined anterior-posterior approach and posterior approach.The frequency of five MRI indexes in each group was collected.The maximum likelihood method of discriminant analysis was adopted to get scores for the five MRI indexes,by which,the data of 63 cases from January 2008 to February 2009 were prospectively analyzed.The highest score represented one certain approach was the most suitble for one certain patient.[Result]The coincidence rate of the MRI score were 83.51% and 82.54% for the retrospective and prospective group.The pre-and postoperative JOA scores had statistical significance for both groups(P0.05),no significant intergroup difference in the pre-and postoperative JOA scores was found(P0.05).There was no statistical significance in the improvement rate between these two groups(P0.05).[Conclusion]The MRI score is of importance for the choice of surgical approach to multi-level cervical spondylotic myelopathy.