We investigated the clinical results in 28 young adult patients with cervical myelopathy under 40, from January 1990 to December 2001. Four patients were female and 24 were male. The diagnosis was disc herniation in 19 patients, ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) in 3, athetoid cerebral palsy in 3, Klippel-Feil syndrome in 1, and developmental canal stenosis without other cervical disease in 2. Their mean age was 34 (22 to 40) years. Nineteen patients were treated by expansive laminoplasty, and the other 9 by anterior interbody fusion. The operative results were evaluated according to the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score, after a mean follow-up period of 44 (2-139) months. The mean JOA score was 11.0 points before surgery and 15.1 points after surgery. The overall mean recovery rate by JOA score was 63.2%. The preoperative and postoperative JOA scores were significant lower in patients with a preoperative long duration of symptoms compared with patients with a short duration of symptoms before surgery. These results suggest that early surgical treatment provides satisfactory results in young adult patients with cervical myelopathy.
