Whether the potential degree of cervical instability and cervical muscle degeneration in patients with cervical spondylosis radicular affect the efficacy of cervical traction.

ABSTRACT

To explore whether the potential instability of the cervical spine and cervical muscle degeneration in patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR) affect the efficacy of cervical traction, and whether cervical traction can aggravate the potential instability of the cervical spine. We divided the 113 recruited CRS patients into three groups based on the differences in horizontal displacement and abnormal angle, and measured the degree of cervical muscle degeneration in the patients through MRI. Considering functional scores, VAS, NDI and PCS scores of the three groups post-treatment were significantly improved. Through the intergroup analysis, we found that the improvement in functional scores in the mild and moderate instability trend groups was better than that in the severe group. Through MRI measurements, we found that the degree of cervical muscle degeneration was significantly increased in the severe instability trend group. Regarding the changes in X-Ray imaging parameters pre- and post-treatment, no significant differences were observed pre- and post-treatment. For patients with CSR, the more serious their predisposition for cervical instability was, the more severe the degree of cervical muscle degeneration was, which means the worse the curative effect was, but cervical traction did not aggravate the potential degree of cervical instability.