Neck is made of upper 7 vertebra that extent from skull to upper torso. The bones, ligaments and muscles of your neck support your head and allow for motion. About 66% of the population have neck pain at some point of time in their lives. About one half episodes of pain resolve within 1 year, but remaining patients continue to suffer pain and with associated disabilities.

Any abnormalities of cervical spine or inflammations also cause pain.

Common causes of neck pain.

1. Muscles strain : In most of cases pain is because of prolonged straining (looking up or down), sleeping in awaked positions, over use of electronic gadgets, working so many hours on computers or smart phone, triggers, muscle strain, poor posture or wrong positioning also cause strain.
2. Worn joints : with age your neck tends to wear.
3. Nerve compression : Prolapse disc or bone spur in the vertebra can cause impingement or compression on the nerve.
4. Injuries : Whiplash injury in which when the head is jerked or pushed backward and the forward, it cause straining the soft tissues of neck.
5. Cervical disc prolapse
6. Disease : Certain disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, syringomyelia or cancer can cause neck pain.
7. As a part of inflammatory spondyloarthropathy

What are the symptoms of neck pain ?

Pain & stiffness of neck, especially in morning

Pain aggravates with movement

Head ache / back side of head ache

Night pain may be present

Neck pain can be associated with headache, shoulder pain or tingling in arm, forearm or hand.

These symptoms are often because of nerves getting pitched in the neck.

Pain radiates to arm or upper back

Treatments :

Pharmacotherapy : These include muscle relaxants, safe pain killers, nerve medicines or other drugs depending on the other cause of pain.

Intervention therapy

– Cervical epidural steroid

– Cervical facet joint / median branch neurolysis

– Radiofrequency procedure : It has long term benefits. Ablate pain signal from nerves, without any effect on nerve function

 – Occipital nerve block : done for relieving occipital headache (posterior of neck occiput)

Lifestyle modifications : It is essential for prevention of further events. This includes avoiding heavy weight, lifting, long or interrupted working in front of laptop, using mobile phone.

Use proper pillow.

Make a good posture while sitting, reading or driving.

Cusses :

• Muscles Strain
• Worn Joints
• Nerve Compression
• Injuries
• Cervical Disc Prolapse
• Disease

Cervical Disc Prolapse :

Disc pressing the nerve roots, it may be because of lifting heavy weight or fall down or repetitive stress on the neck muscles.

Patients have pain in the neck, shoulder and radiating around arm, forearm, forehands.

Patient may have numbness over the hands, tingling sensation over hands and difficulty in holding things.

In cervical disc prolapse, epidural injection have very good role in term of relieving pain and surgery can be avoided by doing intervention.

Surgical decompression and fusion is required in patient with motor weakness and severe numbness and neurological deficit.

Cervical Spondylosis :

Cervical facet joint pain is sometimes referred to as cervical spondylosis. It is caused by arthritis of cervical facet joints.

Why it is affected ?

Whiplash injuries affect cervical facet joint. Repetitive microtrauma to the joint may lead into degeneration.

Symptoms :

Persistent neck pain or upper back pain.

Pain is worsened on extension and rotation of neck or any activities.

Treatments :

Muscle relaxant along with physical therapy (cervical stretching and strengthening exercises).

Posture correction.

It is best treated with cervical facet joint injection or facet joint radio-frequency ablation.