Early Spondylotic Changes in Cervical Spine Due to Weight Lifting on Head in Al-Muthanna Governorate

Objective: assess the relation between cervical spine degeneration and extrinsic axial load from weights overhead lifting. Methods: Cross-sectional study of sixty patients (all of them were a females) between 18 to 70 years of age who were complained from neck pain and stiffness, between August 2018 and January 2020 in Al Muthanna college of medicine. The patients were divided into two groups, group (I) head weight carrier and group (II) non head weight carrier for comparison in degree of cervical spine degeneration. Cervical spine evaluated on lateral radiograph by measuring disc space and vertebral height from C2-C3 level to C7-T1 level and Gore et al scoring system to evaluate the degeneration of these levels. Result: The disc space heights of C2-C3,C3-C4 and C7-T1 of group (I) were not significantly differ from that of group (II), the heights of C4-C5,C5-C6 and C6-C7 in group (I) were significantly smaller than that of group (II ) with p- value 0.005, 0.009 and 0.030 respectively. The vertebral height of C3, C4 and C7 of group (I) not significantly different form group (II), the heights C5 and C6 of group (I) significantly smaller than that of group (II) with p-value 0.011and 0.048 respectively. The result of Gore et al scoring system of C2-C3,C3-C4 and C7-T1 of group (I) were not significantly different from that of group (II) while the scoring of C4-C5,C5-C6 and C6-C7 in group (I) were significantly different from that of group (II ) with p- value 0.001, 0.008 and 0.009 respectively. Conclusion: Extrinsic load on cervical spine from head weight lifting cause spine segment degeneration represented by disc space narrowing and decrease in vertebral heighet and osteophyte formation. the most affected level is C4-C5, C5-C6 and C6-C7.