[Updates on ossification on posterior longitudinal ligament. Electrophysiological diagnosis of spinal cord dysfunction in ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament]

Abstract

It is extremely difficult to make a correct diagnosis of the responsible lesion in multilevel continuous and mixed-type ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) even after magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) . Understanding the function of the preoperative spinal cord is crucial for surgical planning and electrophysiological diagnosis of spinal cord function is useful in such cases. Also, intraoperative spinal cord monitoring is required for cervical OPLL surgery because OPLL patients show postoperative neurological deterioration more frequently than any other pathogenesis.