Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

Abstract

There appears to be a common pattern of lesion progression in cervical spondylotic myelopathy: atrophy and neuronal loss in the anterior horn and intermediate zone develop first, followed by degeneration of the lateral and posterior funiculi. Eventually, marked atrophy develops throughout the entire gray matter and severe degeneration occurs in the lateral funiculus. Furthermore, the existence of thin myelinated fibers in the white matter suggests focal demyelinating and remyelinating processes occur in cervical spondylotic myelopathy.