Patients with cervical stenosis usually present with cervical radiculopathy, with or without myelopathy. Typically, the condition involves the lower cervical spine. Patients frequently complain of radiating arm pain with numbness and paresthesia in the involved dermatomes. Occasionally, associated weakness occurs in the muscles supplied by that nerve root. If the stenosis is severe enough, or if it is positioned centrally in the spine, patients may present with signs and symptoms of myelopathy (spinal cord dysfunction). Typically, these patients complain of finger numbness, clumsiness, and difficulty walking due to spasticity and loss of position sense. In more severe cases, the patients can have bowel and bladder control dysfunction. Upon examination, these patients have “long-tract signs” such as hyperreflexia, positive Hoffman sign, positive Babinski sign, and/or clonus.
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