Is surgery beneficial for patients with concurrent multiple sclerosis and degenerative cervical myelopathy? A review of literature

INTRODUCTION: Due to an overlap in symptoms, there is significant delay in surgical treatment of patients that have concomitant multiple sclerosis (MS) and degenerative cervical Myelopathy (DCM). The purpose of this review is to evaluate if surgical intervention is beneficial to patients that have concurrent presentations. RESEARCH QUESTION: Is surgery beneficial in concurrent MS and DCM? MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search with no date restrictions was conducted on Pubmed and Medline databases. Keywords searched: Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy, Multiple sclerosis, Treatment, Surgery, Quality of Life. Randomised controlled trials, prospective, retrospective, and case series reporting timing of surgery, post-operative outcomes such as improvement in myelopathic symptoms, quality of life, and any serious complications were included. RESULTS: The literature search yielded a total of 8 studies across all databases. Seven articles were selected for full text review, and all of them were sectioned for inclusion in this review. Seven studies evaluated 160 participants with concurrent multiple sclerosis and degenerative cervical myelopathy. Earlier studies had discouraged performing surgery in this subset of patients, the majority of studies found it worthwhile to perform early surgery for patients with concomitant multiple sclerosis and degenerative cord compression, if the patients had radiculopathy. Quality of life for MS patients did not improve as much as it did for patients that did not have MS. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Patients with radiculopathy, neck pain and cord compression are most likely to benefit from early surgery. There is no need for delaying to offer surgery unless other medical/anaesthetic contraindications exist.