Syndrome of cervical spondylosis in Blantyre, Malawi.

OBJECTIVE

To define the spectrum of clinical and radiological presentations of cervical spondylosis in Malawians.

DESIGN

A prospective study.

SETTING

The Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre which is the main referral hospital in Malawi and the teaching hospital of Malawi College of Medicine.

SUBJECTS: Thirty seven patients (nineteen females and eighteen males) who presented with cervical spondylosis between February 1997 and September 1998.

INTERVENTIONS: Treatment was conservative except one patient with cervical myelopathy who had laminectomy.

RESULTS

Four of the patients were aged below 40 years; six were in the seventh decade, 13 in the fifth and fourteen in the sixth decades of life. All the 37 patients had discogenic disorder which manifested as brachial neuropathy. In addition, five (13.5%) had cervical myelopathy and two (5.4%) each had vertebro-basilar artery insufficiency, pseudoangina and dysphagia. Anterior osteophytes were three times as common as posterior osteophytes.

CONCLUSION

In view of the various manifestations of cervical spondylosis the term cervical syndrome can be aptly applied to this disease.