Diagnosis and treatment of neck pain conditions is the second largest sector of the orthopedic industry, bested only by lumbar back pain concerns. Neck pain, also known as cervical pain, can be just as disabling and agonizing as the worst lower back pain and the condition is known to affect countless hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In much the same way as other dorsopathy complaints, chronic neck pain has a tendency to resist treatment and endure long term, making life a real challenge for any affected patient who can not find lasting relief.
Among the many neck pain conditions, there are some which stand out as being particularly prevalent in diagnosis, as well as especially problematic to cure. These structural concerns may exist for idiopathic reasons or due to known neck injuries, such as whiplash. The most common anatomical issues blamed for causing chronic pain in the cervical spine are disc pathologies, such as disc desiccation and herniations. The second most commonly implicated theoretically painful process is osteoarthritis. Less typical diagnostic theories used to explain neck pain may include spinal curvature concerns, such as hyperlordosis or hypolordosis, cervical spondylolisthesis or non-spinal issues, such as thoracic outlet syndrome or cervical plexus nerve problems.
The intervertebral discs are thinnest and most susceptible to injury in the cervical spine. The head is a very weighty object balanced precariously on the thin shaft of the neck. Forceful hyper-flexion or hyper-extension of the neck can certainly damage the delicate cervical discs. Additionally, the normal and excepted process which has become known as degenerative disc disease is almost always present in the cervical spinal levels, particularly from C5 downwards. Both degenerated discs and bulging discs are suspected of sourcing neck pain in more patients than any other reason. This is ironic, considering incredibly comprehensive and wide ranging research shows absolutely no correlation between disc issues and the existence of neck pain in a huge sampling of patients.
The various osteoarthritic processes are also almost standard fare for adults to experience in the neck as they age. These processes can take many forms, but the most commonly blamed for creating painful symptoms include facet joint syndrome and bone spur formation on and around the cervical vertebrae. In some rare cases, these osteophytes can impinge on the central spinal canal or the neuroforaminal openings and affect nerve function. However, most cases of osteoarthritic change in the neck are normal and not harmful in any way. The most patients should expect is occasional minor mechanical pain which does not correlate to the nasty and chronic types of pain mostly misdiagnosed as stemming from these typical spinal aging patterns.
Other structural spinal issues and soft tissue pathologies are less frequently pronounced as the primary source of pain, but may take the lead if other diagnostic theories fail to produce adequate treatment results. Recently, I see a great number of patients whose pain is being blamed, in part or in full, on a loss of spinal curvature in the cervical spine. This condition, named hypolordosis, is said to exist from muscular spasm, which is correct. However, in almost every case, this spasm is theorized to exist due to some coincidental and innocent abnormality of the intervertebral discs or a harmless and expected bit of arthritic evidence. In my experience, virtually all cases of hypolordotic spasm are due to ongoing regional ischemia, which explains why treatments directed at the structural issues most often fail terribly.
If you have chronic neck pain conditions which have been blamed on one of these structural parts of the spinal anatomy, yet have not responded well to therapy, I advise you to start looking for holes in the diagnostic verdict. With a bit of research and some concerted effort, I am sure you will find that your pain may be caused by a very different problem than your doctor may have suspected. Remember, the more you learn, the better your chances of finally ending that pain…
Topic: cervical spine, cervical spondylolisthesis, chronic neck pain, degenerative disc disease, disc desiccation, hyperlordosis, intervertebral discs, lower back pain, nerve problems, spinal curvature