1972 Volume 3 Issue 4 Pages 203-208
Three cases of ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament of the cervical spine were presented. All the patients showed remarkable long tract signs indicating spinal cord lesion. Elevation of the total protein content in the CSF was observed in two cases examined. In one case, in whom the ossification was not so obvious, an extramedullary tumor was suspected, but the correct diagnosis was obtained after operation. The discrepancy between the degree of the ossification and that of clinical symptoms, which was often indicated in the literature, was also confirmed in our cases. This disorder have so far been extremely rare in foreign people, an impressive fact, compared with a lat of reports in Japan. Its pathogenesis remains unknown, in spite of several hypotheses proposed in the literature.
