Study Design: A retrospective study. Objective: To identify the prevalence and characteristics of ossified posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) in the cervical spine and its association with other spinal ligament ossifications. Method: This study is a retrospective review of whole spine CT scans of polytrauma patients from 2009 to 2018. Patients were screened for cervical OPLL (C-OPLL), thoracolumbar OPLL, thoracic ossified ligamentum flavum (OLF), cervical and thoracolumbar ossified anterior longitudinal ligament (C-OALL AND T-L OALL), ossified nuchal ligament (ONL) and, diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) using CT scans. Their prevalence and distributions were assessed using statistical tools. Chi-square tests were used to determine statistical association between the categorical parameters. Results: Out of 2500 patients, 128 had C-OPLL with a prevalence rate of 5.12% with mean age of 55.89 year. The most commonly affected level was C5, followed by C6, and C4. The segmental OPLL was highest in number (77.7%), followed by localized type (14.8%). While the prevalence rate of thoracic OPLL was 0.56%, OLF was 9.9%. Ossifications that coexisted along with C-OPLL were thoracic OPLL (7.81%), thoracic OLF (36.71%), cervical OALL (29.68%), thoracolumbar OALL (37.5%), DISH (27.34%) and, ONL (7.03%). Conclusion: Our study indicated a prevalence rate of 5.12% for C-OPLL with a predominance of segmental OPLL (77.7%). Among these patients, approximately 36% had coexisting thoracic OLF. In patients with symptomatic OPLL induced cervical myelopathy, MRI analysis of whole spine with relevant CT correlation may help in detecting additional ossification sites of compression.

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Case: We report the first case of a 21-year-old male patient with macrodystrophia lipomatosa (MDL), with local gigantism involving the thoracic spine and progressively worsening neurodeficit. Imaging studies revealed fatty infiltration and hypertrophied intercostal nerves, dextroscoliosis, osseous hypertrophy between C4 and T2, and severe canal stenosis at the T4 to T5 level secondary to lamino-facetal hypertrophy. He underwent debulking of the lesion and posterior instrumented decompression in a staged manner. His neurodeficit improved postoperatively and was ambulant without support at the end of the 2-year follow-up. Conclusion: Surgery in patients with MDL is technically challenging and fraught with complications such as neurological deficit and significant blood loss.

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