No significant difference in mean achieved JOA scores for elderly, young-old, and old-old
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Elderly patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) can benefit from laminoplasty and have adequate recoveries in terms of achieved Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores for cervical myelopathy, according to a study published online Sept. 8 in Spine.
Masaaki Machino, M.D., from the Chubu Rosai Hospital in Nagoya, Japan, and colleagues compared the surgical outcome between non-elderly and elderly patients who underwent laminoplasty. A total of 520 patients with CSM who underwent double-door laminoplasty were followed postoperatively for an average of 33.3±15.7 months. The patients were divided by age: non-elderly (younger than 65 years), young-old (65 to 74 years), and old-old (75 years and older). JOA scores for cervical myelopathy were used to evaluate pre- and post-operative neurological status.
The investigators found that the mean pre- and post-operative JOA scores were 11.0 and 14.4 in the non-elderly group, 10.2 and 13.2 in the young-old group, and 8.7 and 11.8 points in the old-old groups, respectively. Significantly lower recovery rates of JOA scores were observed in the elderly versus the non-elderly group. However, there was no significant difference in the mean JOA scores achieved (the difference of post- and pre-operative JOA scores) between the groups with 3.4, 3.0, and 3.1 in non-elderly, young-old, and old-old groups, respectively.
"Elderly patients could recover adequately after laminoplasty in terms of achieved JOA score, and laminoplasty for CSM was beneficial in even elderly patients," the authors write.
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