[Spinal stenosis: diagnosis and treatment].

Spondylotic cervical myelopathy (SCM) is a radiologic entity that can match a clinical syndrome of varying degree of severity, and results from spinal canal narrowing due to physiological degeneration of the cervical spine. Clinically, cervical spinal canal narrowing can produce minimal symptoms such as non-specific neck pain, foraminal entrapment of nerve roots, or more severe, chronic myelopathy. SCM initially manifests by signs of posterior medullary tract dysfunction with subsequent pallesthesia, resulting in gait and balance disturbance. Spasticity due to lower motoneurone impairment and incontinence may appear in later stages. Once the symptoms of myelopathy occur, functional deterioration will take place sooner or later. Surgery can then be recommended and scheduled according to the severity of functional impairment and imaging.