Etiology and treatment of cervical kyphosis: state of the art review-a narrative review

Objective: To provide state of the art review regarding cervical kyphosis.

Background: Cervical spine kyphosis has been increasingly common due to the growing elderly population. Clinicians should comprehensively understand its symptoms, biomechanics, etiology, radiographic evaluation, classification, and treatment options and complications of each treatment. Comprehensive review will help clinicians improve the management for patients with cervical kyphosis.

Methods: The available literature relevant to cervical kyphosis was reviewed. PubMed, Medline, OVID, EMBASE, and Cochrane were used to review the literature.

Conclusions: This article summarizes current concepts regarding etiology, evaluation, surgical treatment, complications and outcomes of cervical kyphosis. Major etiologies of cervical kyphosis include degenerative, post-laminectomy, and ankylosing spondylitis. Clinical presentations include neck pain, myelopathy, radiculopathy, and problems with horizontal gaze, swallowing and breathing. Cervical lordosis, C2-7 sagittal vertical axis, chin-brow to vertical angle, and T1 slope should be evaluated from upright lateral 36-inch film. The most widely used classification system includes a deformity descriptor and 5 modifiers. A deformity descriptor provides a basic grouping of the deformity consisting of five types, cervical, cervicothoracic, thoracic, coronal cervical deformity, and cranio-vertebral junction deformity. The 5 modifiers include C2-7 sagittal vertical axis, chin-brow to vertical angle, T1 slope minus cervical lordosis, myelopathy based on modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association score, and SRS-Schwab classification for thoracolumbar deformity. Current treatment options include anterior discectomy and fusion, anterior osteotomy, Smith-Peterson osteotomy, pedicle subtraction osteotomy, or a combination of these based on careful preoperative evaluation.