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If cervical myelopathy is caused by pressure on the neck, won't it come back after surgery as the spine continues to break down?

If someone has cervical myelopathy, the compression of the neck that causes pain and disability, surgery is often done to help relieve that pressure. It is a successful surgery for many patients, although it isn't guaranteed.

As to whether the compression can happen again - this is a possibility. When surgeons prepare surgery for a patient, they weigh the pros and cons and look into what the prognosis, or outlook, is for each individual patient. If it looks like the surgery might not be successful, the surgeon may propose some alternative treatment, rather than doing the surgery for not much gain.

Reference: 

Yasutsuga Yukawa, MD, et al. "Ten Second Step Test" as a New Quantifiable Parameter of Cervical Myelopathy. In Spine. January 2009. Vol. 34. Pp. 82 to 86.

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