Effect of diamagnetic therapy to manage a patient with degenerative cervical myelopathy and drug's intolerance.

Abstract

Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a common condition with a prevalence of 24.2% in the healthy population, and 35.3% in patients older than 60 years. The management of this clinical condition is difficult and implies chronic management of patients. The risk of drug abuse is very high and may lead to important long-term consequences. Finding a therapeutic option capable to reduce the number of prescribed drugs and with few side effects is very important in DCM. We report a 44-year-old Caucasian woman who was diagnosed with DCM. Her medical history revealed that despite using multiple medications, she did not show any signs of improvement. She declined the surgical treatment as well. Following clinical assessment, a diamagnetic pump treatment with pulsed electromagnetic fields for 3 months (once-twice weekly for 30 min, magnetic flux density 86 mt at the site of treatment) resulted in a clinical improvement. The benefits of diamagnetic therapy were three-faced including pain improvement, functional status, and imaging (magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showing bone marrow edema reduction and myelopathy improvement). This is the first case report in our knowledge to prove the effectiveness of diamagnetic therapy in DCM, alongside imaging and functional improvement.