概述
The first Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Management of Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy (CSM) were published in 2005 under the direction of Prof. Kazuhiko Satomi, and in 2015, the revised second edition was published under chairperson Yoshiharu Kato. Following the second edition, we have been engaged in the creation of the present guidelines as committee members and take pride in having provided support in the decision making of medical professionals and patients as per the definition of clinical practice guidelines by the Medical Information Network Distribution Service (MINDS) of the Japan Council for Quality Health Care, i.e., ‘a clinical practice guideline is a document that presents appropriate recommendations to assist patients and medical practitioners in making decisions regarding clinical practice of high importance in medical treatment, based on the body of evidence evaluated and integrated by systematic reviews and the balance between benefits and harms.’ However, it has been reported that approximately half of the guidelines become outdated within 6 years, and they should be revised within 3e5 years. Thus, with the aim of publishing in 2020, the development committee for the revised third edition of the Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Management of Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy held their first meeting in June 2018 and progressed with their work. The revisions of this guideline were made in accordance with the 2017 MINDS Handbook for Clinical Practice Guideline Development.
