부산대학교 도서관

144 cases of cervical myelopathy (123 spondylotic, 21 traumatic) and 23 cases of incomplete cervical spinal cord injury without vertebral fracture and/or dislocation were surgically treated and followed for more than one year. 137 cases were treated by anterior interbody fusion and the remaining cases by laminectomy. The indications for these procedures were outlined. Successful operative results were obtained in 86 per cent of cervical myelopathy cases and 52 per cent of spinal cord injury cases. In contrast with the former cases the rate of recovery in the latter was markedly lowered as the duration of the disease became prolonged.These facts suggest that the rate of postoperative recovery in the spinal cord injury refflects the natural course of recovery rather than the effect of surgery, and that the existence of trauma history to the cervical spine does not have so much influence on the rate of recovery in cervical myelopathy as in spinal cord injury.