
Is Ozone Injection Advisable When Having Severe Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy?

Dear Doctor,
I’m a 65 years old telecom engineer, male, Portuguese.
According to a radiologic finding that took place by chance in July 2014, I have a severe cervical spondylotic myelopathy, with a voluminous disc herniation at C4-C5 making high pressure on the spinal cord.
I don´t have pain or other symptoms (except some needle and pins on my left hand thumb, may be due a dog’s bite, and some very slight weakness on my legs).
- One neurosurgeon recommends open anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, urgently, before onset of the symptoms, while a XXXXXXX and renamed neurosurgeon strongly opposes to surgery until symptoms onset
- A neuroradiologist in a renamed Portuguese hospital suggests as a conservative action the ozone therapy in order to shrink the disc herniation at C4-C5 (where the RMI shows an eventual associated myelomalacia process), and then “wait-and-see” about the cord compression.
I would like very much to avoid any surgery until symptoms appear, and therefore I’m trying to adopt a conservative treatment in the meanwhile until symptoms onset, like the ozone therapy, if not contraindicated in presence of the cervical stenosis and of the radiologic suspicion of a myelomalacia process on the way.
Is the ozone injection unadvisable in this scenario?
Many thanks.
Ozone injection could be tried first.
Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX and thanks for using HCM.
I have read your query and understand your concerns.
In my opinion, if minimal symptoms related to cervical disc herniation, conservative treatment should be tried first.
There is need for evaluation of MRI images or report by me, in order to give you a more accurate answer.
Anyway, intradiscal Ozone injection is a safe minimally invasive procedure that shrinks the disc, relieves compression and symptoms in about 75% of patients treated with it, so in my opinion you should go for Ozone injection first.
If Ozone injection fails to improve your condition and new symptoms appear, you should have decompressive surgery.
Hope this helps. If you have further questions or clarifications, feel free to ask, if not, you can close the conversation and rate the answer.
Wishing you good health.

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