Clinical outcome of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy treated conservatively

Abstract

Patients who had cervical spondylotic radiculopathy without major motor deficit and no evidence of cord compression will have good outcome with non-operative measures. Thus, our study aimed to determine the severity of degenerative changes on plain radiograph among the patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy and their rated outcomes following conservative treatment. It will also study the correlation between pain score with: 1) neck disability index, 2) severity of degenerative changes of the cervical spine and 3) different level of root compression. This is an observative cohort study where all patients with a clinical diagnosis of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy were recruited from Dec 2016 to Jan 2018. Statistical analysis of parametric data will be performed by using descriptive analysis, while Pearson’s correlation test, ANOVA and Paired sample test Spearman’s test were used for correlation test. The p value of < 0.05 is considered to indicate statistically significant difference. We have total of 29 patients to achieve the power of 80%, at 0.05 significance level, in detecting a difference of 5 score from a mean of 28.6 with an estimated standard deviation of 9.2 using a two-sided one-sample t-test. 41% patients had Grade 2 radiographic severity changes. Patients’ rated outcomes with neck disability index (NDI) and pain score showed improvement after conservative treatment with Pearson Correlation (r = 0.523), p<0.01. There is statistically significant correlation between pain score and NDI (p-value <0.001). Correlation between pain score with radiographic severity grade and different level nerve root compression are not statistically significant. Patient with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy who treated conservatively show favorable clinical outcome.