Presentation and outcome of patients treated non-operatively or operatively for Copenhagen Disease: a 30-year experience.

PURPOSE

Our purpose was to analyse the presentation, management and clinical outcome of patients treated operatively and non-operatively for Copenhagen Disease (CD).

METHODS

We performed a retrospective analysis of 10 patients (n = 10) with CD, with a mean follow-up time of 14.7 years. Seven patients underwent non-operative treatment and three patients were treated operatively. Clinical presentation and radiological findings were analysed. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcome measures utilized included Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Short Form 12 Health Survey (SF-12) and visual analogue scale (VAS).

RESULTS

Patients tended to present with back pain. No significant difference was detected in functional scores at time of diagnosis and when compared to last follow-up. ODI improved from 20.0 to 18.4 (p = 0.839), PCS component of SF-12 from 44.5 to 45.9 (p = 0.719), MCS component of SF-12 from 45.7 to 46.9 (p = 0.840) and VAS score remained at 2.8 (p = 1.000). There was no significant difference in functional scores when comparing operative and non-operative treatment groups.

CONCLUSION

CD is likely to remain stable with time or slightly improve after treatment according to functional outcomes tests. Progression of the kyphosis can be halted at different degrees with operative and non-operative treatments although it does not correlate with changes in symptomatology.