TITLE:
The Prevalence and Clinical Importance of Pathological Findings in Cervical MRI among Patients Presenting with Neck Pain at Kumi Orthopaedic Center
AUTHORS:
John Ekure, Naomi Amuron, Douglas Kilama, Phillip Buluma, Andrew Iloket, Faith Akello
KEYWORDS:
Pain, Cervical Spine, MRI
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Orthopedics,
Vol.14 No.11,
November
28,
2024
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Neck pain is a major public health problem in the general population. It not only constitutes a major personal burden but also affects families and the health and economic structure of the countries. In Uganda, despite the impact of neck pain, its burden has not been comprehensively presented, in a way that can serve as the basis for different types of epidemiological studies and for evaluating the current abnormalities related to neck pain. We aimed to evaluate pathological findings commonly detected on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of the spine, to find the frequency of these findings and to emphasize their clinical importance. Methods: This was a retrospective study involving all patients with neck pain (with or without radicular symptoms) seen at Kumi Orthopaedic Center between 2019 and 2023 who had an MRI of the cervical spine. These were identified in the patient register. MRI findings were extracted and quantified from the radiologist’s narrative report Results: MRI reports of 131 patients were included. The mean age was 50.5 years (SD 15.13: range 12 - 87) and 55.7% were men. The most prevalent MRI findings were Disc bulges (54.2%), foraminal compromise (42.7%), and nerve root compression (36.6%). The least prevalent finding was fracture (2.3%). The number of abnormalities significantly increased with an increase in age. However, there was no significant difference in findings between males and females across all age groups. The most involved vertebrae were C5/C6 (67.2%), C4/C5 (60.3%) and C6/C7 (56.8%). The least involved vertebra was C1/C2 (13.8%). Conclusion: The findings of this study provide a comprehensive and informative overview useful in informing the clinicians in diagnosis and decision making thus improving patient management.