Current research status and best practice recommendations.
Julio C. Furlan, MD, LLB, MBA, PhD, MSc, FRCPC, FAAN, FASIA
Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is the most common non-traumatic spinal cord injury affecting up to 2% adults worldwide. DCM has various phenotypes of clinical presentation and natural history, even though most individuals with DCM typically develop motor, sensory and autonomic impairments and disability secondary to cervical cord dysfunction caused by degenerative, arthritic, and/or congenital processes. Diagnosis of DCM is usually based on the neurological symptoms and signs combined with the neuroimaging and/or electrophysiological findings. The 2017 clinical practice guidelines outline the current evidence-based recommendations for management of patients with DCM, and highlight important knowledge gaps in the current literature. The AO Spine RECODE-DCM project is an international initiative where different stakeholders (including healthcare professionals, researchers and people with lived experience in DCM) worked together to establish the top 10 research priorities for DCM. This presentation will review: (i) the pathophysiology and epidemiology of DCM, (2) the tools for diagnosis and assessment of patients with DCM, (3) the clinical practice guidelines for the management of patients with DCM, which includes recommendations for patients with mild, moderate, and severe disease and nonmyelopathic patients with evidence of cord compression, and (4) the main conclusions from the panel of who contributed to the AO Spine RECODE-DCM project, which is.