MEDIAN LONGITUDINAL CERVICAL SOMATOTOMY

FROM THE INTRODUCTION

This monograph surveys our experience, over more than 15 years, of the surgical treatment of cervical myelopathy due to degenerative disc disease. It deals with:

1) morphological conditions and their changes in the cervical spine;

2) anatomo-clinical varieties of the myelopathy of degenerative disc disease;

3) complementary diagnostic studies;

4) surgical treatment and its immediate and long-term results. In a separate chapter, the surgical indications for somatotomy are considered in relation to other forms of vertebro-medullary pathology of acute or subacute onset which can also be responsible for anterior compression of the spinal cord. The results obtained confirm once again that, in the face of the various mechanical causes of compression, the signs of cord and root damage can for a long time be minimal, but vascular decompensation always follows a first phase of adaptation, and is related to the hemodynamic changes brought about by compression.