Fig. 4.

Distribution of patients with spinal diseases stratified by sex and diagnostic codes in the Republic of Korea in 2016. There were more male patients than female patients among those younger than 39 years; however, there were more female patients older than 40 years. Deformity (M41) was common among patients aged 0–19 years. Among those younger than 59 years, diagnostic codes M54 and M51, mainly diseases with disc herniation, were the most common regardless of sex. Among those older than 60 years, M54 and M48 including spinal stenosis was the most common code for both sexes.