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Tomographic analysis reveals insight into cervical spine degeneration
Several factors, including cervical level and patient age, play a role in the likelihood and degree of cervical facet arthrosis, researchers found.
Moon Soo Park, MD, PhD, and colleagues performed a retrospective study to evaluate the frequency of facet arthrosis as a result of age, sex, and cervical level. The study included 320 randomly selected patients with neck pain, pain radiating to their arm or walking difficulty. All patients underwent computed tomography of the cervical spine.
Degree of arthrosis from C2 to C7 was assigned to one of four categories: grade I, normal; grade II, degenerative changes including joint space narrowing, cyst formation, small osteophytes without joint hypertrophy seen on axial or sagittal images; grade III, joint hypertrophy secondary to large osteophytes without fusion on axial or coronal images; and grade IV, bony fusion of the joint seen on sagittal images.
Facet arthrosis rated higher than grade III was most commonly seen in the upper cervical levels (C2–C3, C3–C4, C4–C5), as well as in older patients, the researchers found. Additionally, facet arthrosis was most common on the left side, and in male patients.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.