“If I had to choose again, I would have had surgery sooner!” Today, I met Mr. Liu (pseudonym) during my ward round, he said. Mr. Liu is a patient with cervical spondylosis who was recently admitted to the hospital. He just had an operation yesterday, and the effect is good. The symptoms of hand numbness and leg weakness have been significantly relieved.
What is special about Mr. Liu is that he “dragged” out his serious condition before surgery!
The more you delay, the more serious: cervical radiculopathy progresses to cervical spondylosis!
As early as 2019, Mr. Liu had neck discomfort, and the symptoms of his upper limbs were not particularly serious. At that time, he was diagnosed with cervical radiculopathy; by 2020 , The two fingers of his left hand became numb, but he did not want to undergo surgery at that time, so he continued conservative treatment, and tried various attempts on weekdays, including some neck muscle exercises, but to no avail. After more than a year, the disease developed rapidly, and symptoms such as back pain and leg weakness gradually appeared.
This time, he came to see a doctor with a film, and I found that his condition from cervical radiculopathy at the beginning should progress to cervical spondylotic myelopathy. Mr. Liu’s symptoms are still very typical. When walking in the lower extremities, there is a feeling of stepping on cotton, weakness in both legs, and numbness and weakness in the upper extremities.
In order to save function, cervical spondylotic myelopathy needs surgery as soon as possible!
According to his preoperative MRI, the spinal cord has been squashed and deformed, the compression is very severe, and multiple segments are present. In this case, we generally recommend surgery as soon as possible. If the delay is too long, it will affect the recovery after surgery.
Mr. Liu’s spinal cord compression is still relatively serious. After the operation, it can be seen from the film that the spinal cord has been fully decompressed and restored to fullness. Fortunately, Mr. Liu’s symptoms have been significantly relieved after surgery.
But not everyone is as lucky as Mr. Liu. Some patients suffer from severe spinal cord compression, and their postoperative function cannot be recovered quickly and well, and even some irreversible damage occurs. Therefore, for this type of cervical spondylosis, we recommend surgery as soon as possible to decompress the nerve and spinal cord.
Don’t take cervical spondylosis seriously, symptoms require early intervention!
Maybe many people, like Mr. Liu, did not intervene in time when the symptoms of cervical spondylosis first appeared, thinking that doing more neck muscle exercises can relieve their symptoms, it is not too bad matter. Also resists surgery when the disease progresses to the point where surgery is required. However, with the progress of cervical spondylosis, when the compression becomes more and more serious, it may cause unexpected harm.
Like at the beginning of Mr. Liu, the cervical disc herniation was small, and when the nerve root was compressed, neck discomfort and upper limb symptoms appeared. At this time, it was cervical radiculopathy. Most of these patients can get good results with conservative treatment. However, Mr. Liu’s cervical spondylosis progressed rapidly, with upper limb symptoms such as hand numbness. Conservative treatment for a long time was ineffective, and the symptoms worsened. The doctor suggested surgery to decompress the nerve, but because he did not want surgery, the timing of the surgery was delayed.
As the protrusion became larger and the spinal cord was severely compressed, Mr. Liu’s disease had turned into cervical spondylotic myelopathy, and he also had some symptoms of spinal cord compression. Cervical spondylosis is one of the most dangerous types of cervical spondylosis, and surgery is required as soon as it is detected. Spinal cord injury is irreversible. At this time, it is necessary to decompress the spinal cord as soon as possible to avoid some irreversible functional damage caused by increased pressure.
So, this tells us that in the early stage of cervical spondylosis, we must intervene as soon as possible, carry out some rehabilitation treatment and pay attention to cervical spine protection and other measures, and do not delay to the point where surgery is absolutely necessary. If the patient already needs surgery, it should be done as soon as possible when there is an indication for surgery, so as not to affect the postoperative recovery.