Trends and patterns of cervical degenerative disc disease: an analysis of magnetic resonance imaging of 1300 symptomatic patients.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the trends and patterns of cervical degenerative disc disease in the cervical spine in different age groups of symptomatic patients.

METHODS

Overall, 1300 symptomatic patients who had undergone cervical spine MRI from February 2019 to November 2021 were included. Pfirrmann grading was used to evaluate the IVD degeneration. Patients were divided into five groups based on age: group 1 from 20 to 29 years, group 2 from 30 to 39 years, group 3 from 40 to 49 years, group 4 from 50 to 59 years, and group 5 from 60 years and above. The patterns, severity, and the number of degenerated levels in each age group were analysed.

RESULTS

The total number of degenerated IVDs (grades IV and V) increased significantly with age, ranging from 76 (4.9%) in group 1 to 677 (43.4%) in group 5. The most common degenerated levels were C2/3 (25% of the total degenerated levels) in group 1, C5/6 (29.0%) in group 2, C5/6 (33.1%) in group 3, C5/6 (31.3%) in group 4, C5/6 (24.8%), in group 5. The number of degenerated IVDs increased significantly with age (P < 0.001). In patients with two or more degenerated levels, contiguous-level disc degeneration was more common than skip lesions.

CONCLUSION

This study evaluated the severity and pattern of cervical disc degeneration at each level in different age groups. The severity and number of degenerated levels increased significantly with increased age. Adjacent-level degeneration is more common than skip lesions in patients with more than one-level degeneration.