Neurological symptoms and findings in cervical discopathy

Introduction: Cervical discopathy is a disease that affects people's daily lives and has different symptoms. Our study was conducted to examine the symptoms of cervical discopathy. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive and observational study, 55 patients were included in the study by retrospectively scanning the files of patients diagnosed with cervical discopathy, who applied to the neurology outpatient clinic of Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University Hospital between June 1 and October 1, 2021. Patients who did not undergo neck operation, over 18 years of age, with chiari malformation and who were not pregnant were included in the study. SPSS 26 package program was used for statistical analysis and p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: Of the patients included in the study, 32 (58.2%) were female and 23 (41.8%) were male. The mean age of the study group was 56.33±12.92 years. In our study, the number of patients with neck pain was 49, the number of patients with headache was 15, the number of patients with tinnitus was 2, the number of patients with dizziness was 8, and the number of patients with trigeminal neuralgia was 8 (n=55). While trigeminal neuralgia was observed in all patients with protrusion at C2-C3 level, trigeminal neuralgia was not detected in patients with normal C3-C4 level. Discussion and Conclusion: When the data in our study were evaluated, discopathy was observed mostly in the middle part of the cervical region in patients. Cervical discopathy should be included in the differential diagnosis in patients presenting with symptoms such as dizziness, tinnitus and trigeminal neuralgia. In the light of these data, we need new clinical studies to illuminate the symptoms and signs of upper and lower cervical discopathy.