Preoperative pain hypersensitivity is associated with axial pain after posterior cervical spinal surgeries in degenerative cervical myelopathy patients: a preliminary resting-state fMRI study

OBJECTIVE: To test whether preoperative pain sensitivity is associated with the postoperative axial pain (PAP) in degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) and to explore its underlying brain mechanism. METHODS: Clinical data and resting-state fMRI data of 62 DCM patients along with 60 age/gender matched healthy participants were collected and analysed. Voxel-wise amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was computed and compared between DCM patients and healthy controls. Correlation analyses were performed to reveal the association between the clinical metrics and brain alterations. Clinical data and ALFF were also compared between DCM patients with PAP and without PAP. RESULTS: (1) Relative to healthy participants, DCM patients exhibited significantly lower preoperative pain threshold which is associated with the PAP intensity; (2) Relative to patients without PAP, PAP patients exhibited increased ALFF in mid-cingulate cortex (MCC) and lower preoperative pain threshold; (3) Further, multivariate pattern analysis revealed that MCC ALFF provide additional value for PAP vs. non-PAP classification. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our findings suggest that preoperative pain hypersensitivity may be associated with postoperative axial pain in degenerative cervical myelopathy patients. This finding may inspire new therapeutic ideas for patients with preoperative axial pain. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13244-022-01332-2.