Contribution of electromyography to the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of cervical disc disease: a study of 114 patients.

The aim of this study is to verify whether EMG has the same diagnostic and prognostic capacity in cervical root syndrome as it does in lumbo-sacral syndromes. Our population includes 114 patients affected by a cervico-brachialgia with EMG denervation provoked by cervical disc disease. 26 patients were submitted to a myelography confirming the discal origin of the syndrome: there were 3 cases of disc protrusion and 23 cases of cervical spondylosis. The agreement between EMG and myelographical data was significant in 20 cases (76.9%). There were no significant differences of evolution between operated and non-operated cases. EMG failed to provide prognostic criteria as it does in lumbo-sacral syndromes: it must hence be concluded that all patients presenting cervico-brachialgia and EMG signs of denervation should in any case be admitted to the hospital for exploratory examination. In this context, the particular role of EMG is to establish the degree of the muscular impairment, the number of roots involved, the duration of the syndrome and--recently--the identification of the intervertebral space to be explored by spinal CT.