Cervical Paraspinal Muscle Fatty Degeneration Is Not Associated with Muscle Cross-sectional Area: Qualitative Assessment Is Preferable for Cervical Sarcopenia.

CONCLUSION: Because our study demonstrates minimal association between paraspinal cross-sectional area and fatty infiltration of the cervical paraspinals, we recommend that physicians use the proven qualitative assessment of paraspinal fatty infiltration during preoperative evaluation of patients who are candidates for ACDF. Future studies investigating the relationship between cervical paraspinal cross-sectional area and patient-reported outcomes after ACDF are necessary to lend greater strength to this recommendation.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, diagnostic study.
PMID: 33416225 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research - January 7, 2021 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Pinter ZW, Wagner S, Fredericks D, Xiong A, Helgeson M, Currier B, Freedman BA, Kepler C, Elder BD, Bydon M, Nassr A, Sebastian AS Tags: Clin Orthop Relat Res Source Type: research