Abstract
Relatively younger cases of OPLL, which were under 45 years old were evaluated. In terms of age distribution, 13 percents of all OPLL patients were under 45 years old, and 4 percents were under 40. The youngest one was 29 years old at the onset of the symptoms. They had relatively short affected periods. The proportion of continuous type in relatively younger group exceeded that in all patients. This might suggest that OPLL is related to predisposition of ossification. In relatively younger group, they had high incidence of accident at the onset and some cases had operations for prevention of worsening. Postoperative results in relatively younger cases were similar to that in all cases. When we eliminated those cases associated with accidents or preventative operations, postoperative results of relatively younger cases were excellent.
