Prevalencia de discopatía degenerativa en columna cervical diagnosticada por resonancia magnética en pacientes de 30 a 80 años en el Hospital de Especialidades José Carrasco Arteaga Cuenca, enero - diciembre 2019

Abstract

Background: Degenerative disc disease is caused by the loss of proteoglycans, which makes the nucleus become dehydrated and shrink. The disc shows alteration, which can cause annular fissures and later a hernia. Objective: to determine the prevalence of degenerative disc disease in the cervical spine, diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging in patients aged 30 to 80 years at José Carrasco Arteaga Hospital, in Cuenca, from January to December 2019. Methodology: Retrospective descriptive study. To obtain data, a form designed by the authors was used, which was collected and tabulated using the IBM SPSS 25 software, based on different variables. Results: From 550 magnetic resonance imaging tests 480 patients were diagnosed with degenerative disc disease (87.3%). This pathology prevails in fameless (64%) in the 51-60 age group (31.5%). The most frequent lesion is protruding disc herniation (59%), which can affect more than one intervertebral disc space (62.5%). Conclusions: These findings are similar to those of other studies showing that degenerative disc disease affects women primarily; imaging test show disc protrusion; they also show that the most affected region of the cervical spine occurs in more than one segment. MRI is the most effective diagnostic method due to its sensitivity and specificity.