[Myelopathies cervical arthroses. Apropos of 14 personal cases, 12 of which were operated on].

Reviewing fourteen cases, the authors show that cervical myelopathies present by spastic quadriplegia associated in half of the cases with sensory impairment and in a third of cases with radicular signs in the upper limbs. Tomography always shows posterior discal osteophytosis, sometimes gross, which reduces the lumen of the canal more particularly since it is associated (eleven times out of fourteen) with constitutional stenosis, of variable severity. Opaque or gaseous myelography makes it possible to exclude malformation or new formation and will demonstrate cord constriction within the canal. Surgical treatment (eleven laminectomies, 1 discectomy-artrodesis) resulted in 7 improvements, no change in 3 cases and 2 exacerbations. The myelopathies appeared to be due to repeated contusions of the cord and its arteries against the wall of the canal, caused by neck movements.