Previous Surgical Exposure and the Onset of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: A Propensity-Matched Case-Control Analysis Nested Within the UK Biobank Cohort

Study DesignCase-control study.ObjectivesDegenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) is a progressive neurological condition caused by mechanical stress on the cervical spine. Surgical exposure in the preceding months to a DCM diagnosis is a common theme of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) discussions. Such a relationship has biological plausibility (e.g. neck positioning, cord perfusion) but evidence to support this association is lacking.MethodsWe analysed UK Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data for participants in the UK BioBank cohort. We defined cases as those episodes with a primary diagnosis of DCM and generated controls using non-DCM HES episodes. Cases and controls were propensity score-matched by age, sex and date of episode, and a directed acyclic graph was used to robustly control for confounders. We defined the exposure as any surgical procedure under general or regional anaesthetic occurring within the 6-24 months prior to the episode.ResultsWe analysed 806 DCM and 2287432 non-DCM hospital episodes. On multivariable logistic regression analysis, the odds ratio (95% CI) for the effect of a binarised (0 vs ≥ 1) exposure on risk of developing DCM was 1.20 (1.02-1.41), and for categorised (0 vs 1 and 0 vs ≥ 2) exposure was 1.11 (0.882-1.39) & 1.33 (1.075-1.65).ConclusionsThis study supports the patient narrative of surgery as a risk factor for the development of DCM. The association displays temporality, dose-response relationship, and biological plausibility. Further work is needed to confirm this in other cohorts, explore mediating mechanisms, and identify those at greatest risk.