Degenerative Cervical Disc Herniation: Prevalence of Affected Cervical Level in a Hispanic Population in Puerto Rico

Abstract

Background: In the literature, degenerative cervical disc herniation is considered to occur more frequently at the C5-C6 and C6-C7 levels. This study aimed to evaluate the operated cervical level prevalence among patients with degenerative cervical disc herniation in a Hispanic Puerto Rico population.

Methods: The University of Puerto Rico Neurosurgery database was used to identify patients who underwent anterior cervical discectomy for degenerative cervical disc herniation during a 15-year period from January 1, 2006 until December 31, 2020. Operated cervical levels for each patient were analyzed.

Results: During the study period, 409 patients were operated on for degenerative cervical disc herniation. Two hundred-eight patients (50.8%) had disc herniations at more than 1 cervical level for 663 treated levels. The most prevalent cervical levels in this Hispanic population were C5-C6 (34.8%) and C4-C5 (28.1%). The C6-C7 level was involved in 18.9% of the operated levels, and the C3-C4 level in 17.3%. The C7-T1 level was involved in only 0.6% of the operated levels, and the C2-3 level in 0.3%. The cohort included 51.3% of men and 48.7% of women, with a men-to-women ratio of 1.05:1. The median age of females was 56.5 (range 26-82) and 59.0 (range 31-85) for males. Operated cervical discs were most common between the ages of 48 and 66 years for either sex.

Conclusions: In a Hispanic Puerto Rico population, the most prevalent operated degenerative cervical disc levels were C5-C6 and C4-C5.

Keywords: Cervical; Demographics; Ethnicity; Genetic; Herniated disc; Hispanic.