Background
Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) is the leading cause of non-traumatic spinal cord injury. Neck pain, Hoffman sign, gait instability and bladder dysfunction are common features. Although, surgical decompression remains the mainstay treatment, very few patients achieve complete recovery and end up facing life-long disability. This results in psychological distress and poorer quality of life. DCM is not very well understood and to our knowledge no DCM Registry exists.
Aims
Methods
A prospective registry of DCM patients. For the pilot cohort, 50 patients will be recruited from various participating hospitals across Sydney over a span of 3 years. Follow- up will be at 6 months and MRI scan of cervical spine every year. Minimum data set is as defined by the AO Spine RE-CODE DCM (Research Objectives and Common Data Elements for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy), which will include Common Data Elements (CDE) of demographics, comorbidities, disease, imaging, examination and intervention, Outcomes under domains of economic, neuromuscular, pain, radiology, life impact and adverse events and Measurements including NDI, mJOA and EQ-5D-5L. Inclusion criteria are all DCM cases with a confirmed diagnosis by a spine surgeon or neurosurgeon, patient age >=18 years, English speaking and willing to give informed written consent. The exclusion criteria are patient age<18 years, non-English speaking, unwilling to give consent and patients with an intellectual disability or cognitive decline.
Conclusion
The gap in knowledge and the incomplete understanding of DCM hinders the ability of clinicians to offer adequate counselling and treatment options to DCM patients. Hence, this unique data from Australian DCM Registry will help understand DCM better and establish improved clinical approaches.