Etiological Factors of Non-Traumatic Compressive Myelopathy

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of etiological factors of non-traumatic compressive myelopathies.
Methods: This is tertiary care Hospital based descriptive cross sectional study conducted at Neurology department of Liaquat University of medical and health Sciences, Jamshoro / Hyderabad after approval of departmental ethical committee from 22th October 2020 to 21st April 2021. Study data was collected after informed consent from all cases. All cases fulfilled inclusion criteria were selected and included in study and data was recorded on preformed proforma. Data was analyzed on SPSS 21 and results were formulated accordingly.
Results: In this study 163 patients were included to assess the etiological factors of non-traumatic compressive myelopathy and the results were analyzed. Out of theses 163 subjects who had nontraumatic compressive myelopathies, the etiological and demographic features revealed that, 106 (65%) were male & 57 (35%) were female patients, having a 1.85:1 male to female ratio. The study population’s age ranged from 20 to 60 years, and the mean age SD was 47.6 ± 11.2 years. One hundred and eleven 111 (68.1%) patients had paraparesis while fifty two 52 (31.9%) had Quadriparesis. Most common cause of non-traumatic compressive myelopathy was Tuberculosis spine 35(21.5%) followed by demyelinating Myelitis 30 (18.4%) spinal secondaries 24 (14.8%), disc prolapse was noted in 22(13.5%), multiple myeloma 12 (7.3%) cervical spondylosis 10(6.1%), spinal epidural abscess 8(4.9%), transverse myelitis 4(2.5%) while ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament as 3(1.8%) patients.
Conclusion: Tuberculosis of spine followed by demyelinating Myelitis were most common causes of non-traumatic compressive myelopathies. It is of prime importance to identify those risk factors and contributing states that prone the population for the development of such disabling ailments to address the burden of diseases and to optimize the management’s strategies for this already compromised patients.