Abstracts Posters SICOT-SOF meeting Gothenburg 2010 _2_

Poster
Topic: Spine
Abstract number: 23786
RESPIRATORY DYSFUNCTION IN PATIENTS WITH CERVICAL MYELOPATHY
Minoru KASHIHARA
Naze Tokushukai Hospital, Amami City (JAPAN)
Purpose: The changes in respiratory function in chronic cervical myelopathy is not
well documented. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the respiratory function of
patients in cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). Materials and methods: We
investigated preoperative percent vital capacity (%VC) and forced vital capacity for 1
second (FEV%) as a parameter of spirometry in 75 patients with CSM and 41
patients with lumbar canal stenosis (LCS) as a control group. In 32 CSM patients
postoperative spirometry was performed. We compared %VC between upper cervical
lesion group and the other group of CSM. The upper cervical lesion group had high
intramedullary signal intensity change on T2WI of MR image and the other group had
no signal change at the cranial side from C4/5 level. Results: In terms of preoperative
FEV%, there were no significant differences between CSM group and LCS group.
However, the preoperative %VC of CSM group was significantly lower than that in
LCS. The %VC of CSM slightly improved after surgery. The %VC of upper cervical
lesion group was lower than that of the other group of CSM, but there were not
significant differences between two groups. Conclusion: The spinal segments of main
inspiratory muscles exist in cervical spinal cord and those of main expiratory muscles
exist in thoracic spinal cord. We considered that the preoperative decrease of %VC
in CSM was due to the muscle weakness of respiratory muscles. Respiratory
dysfunction is considered one of the impairment in CSM.
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