Cervical spondylosis is a common disease, but people still have a vague understanding of this disease and often miss the best time to treat it. So, what is cervical spondylosis? Cervical spondylosis refers to the involvement of important tissues (spinal cord, nerve roots, sympathetic nerve and vertebral artery) around the cervical spine due to degeneration of the cervical disc and its secondary degeneration of the intervertebral joints, resulting in corresponding clinical symptoms. Since the cervical spine is the most active part of the human body, improper use of the cervical spine can lead to chronic strain injury of the cervical spine. If the cervical spine is overburdened by long hours of computer work, long hours of writing, and frequent driving and flying, it will affect the muscles, ligaments and joints of the neck and cause degeneration of the cervical spine components, thus producing symptoms of cervical spondylosis. Cervical spondylosis occurs in people over 40 years of age, mainly in those who work at a desk and whose necks are often in a fixed position. Due to the popularity of computers, the incidence of cervical spondylosis has a tendency to become younger. The modern medical profession generally divides cervical spondylosis into spinal cord type, nerve root type, sympathetic vertebral artery type, cervical type, mixed cervical spondylosis and other types. Most patients with cervical spondylosis have symptoms such as upper limb numbness, weakness, neck pain or stiffness, which are typical of neurogenic cervical spondylosis; some patients have symptoms such as dizziness, panic and sweating, which are typical of sympathetic vertebral artery type; severe cervical spondylosis is characterized by unstable walking, a cotton-like feeling when walking, a deep foot and a shallow foot, followed by upper limb numbness and weakness and inability to hold things. This is the performance of spinal cord type cervical spondylosis. In clinical practice, there are not many cervical spine patients who have the above typical symptoms. Patients often have symptoms of both this type and that type. This is mixed cervical spondylosis. There is a misconception about cervical spondylosis, and many patients think that without neck pain, it is not cervical spondylosis; simply by finding osteophytes in the cervical spine through X-ray examination or only having neck pain and stiffness, they think they have cervical spondylosis. Therefore, patients with the above symptoms should go to a regular hospital and find a spine surgeon or an experienced orthopedic surgeon to diagnose for themselves. The diagnosis of cervical spondylosis needs to be made by a spine surgeon through physical examination combined with cervical spine X-ray and cervical spine MRI results. X-rays alone cannot clarify the nature and extent of the lesion, nor can the doctor provide an accurate treatment plan. Why do I need a cervical spine X-ray after an MRI? Because these two means of examination provide different information about the disease, and the two types of examination are indispensable to correctly diagnose cervical spondylosis in all aspects and provide the correct treatment. The doctor’s physical examination is also very important, and relying on MRI and X-ray alone to diagnose cervical spondylosis is highly inaccurate and often leads to patients receiving unnecessary or even wrong treatment. CT examination of the cervical spine is of little significance for the diagnosis of cervical spondylosis, but it is of significance for the diagnosis of cervical stenosis and ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament. When receiving patients with cervical spondylosis, I often hear patients themselves say that cervical spondylosis can be cured by massage and traction treatment. This is very wrong and very dangerous. Massage and traction are strictly forbidden for spinal cord cervical spondylosis. Since the patients themselves are not clear about what type of cervical spondylosis they are suffering from, blindly adopting such treatment can aggravate the symptoms or even lead to paralysis or even death. The regular treatment of cervical spondylosis should adopt a comprehensive treatment approach, using different treatments for different types, generally using non-steroidal antipyretic analgesics, selective muscle relaxants and peripheral nerve nutrients for symptomatic treatment. For neurogenic cervical spondylosis, cervical traction treatment can be used; for sympathetic vertebral artery type, peri-collar fixation with neurotrophic or vasodilator drugs is used, while for spinal cord type cervical spondylosis and mixed cervical spondylosis, surgery is required. Ms. Wang, who lives in Three-Eyed Bridge, came to our hospital for treatment because she often walked unsteadily and fell, and was diagnosed with spinal cord cervical spondylosis by magnetic resonance examination, which showed no obvious signs of spinal cord necrosis. After the anterior cervical spine surgery, Ms. Wang’s pre-surgery symptoms completely disappeared, and she was able to get out of bed three days after the surgery and was discharged home seven days later. Ms. Wang said with emotion that the surgery for cervical spondylosis was not that scary and the results were very good. She wants to tell her patients to believe in science and actively treat them to recover their health as soon as possible. At present, there is a common misconception that surgery is very dangerous and paralyzing if you don’t get it right. With the development of medical technology, the surgical treatment of cervical spondylosis has become very mature, and the surgical treatment is to solve the problem from the cause, so the efficacy is much more ideal than conservative treatment. In addition, cervical spondylosis is a disease that is constantly aggravated. Due to the continuous compression of the spinal cord and nerve roots, and the inability of the spinal cord and nerve roots to tolerate the ischemia after compression, the spinal cord degenerates, necroses, and gradually loses its proper function. After the spinal cord tissue is necrotic, the symptoms of cervical spondylosis cannot be restored even if the compression is lifted. This is the reason why many patients who have been suffering from cervical spondylosis for many years still cannot recover some of their functions after receiving surgery for cervical spondylosis. Therefore, patients with cervical spondylosis should correctly understand and actively treat cervical spondylosis to avoid misdiagnosis or delaying the best time for treatment, in order to recover their health to the greatest extent and enjoy life better.