The neck of humans, like other animals, is an amazing part of the body, quite fragile but powerful.
The cervical spine, along with all the muscles and ligaments, supports and activates the skull, absorbs shocks when walking, protects the brain from concussion, protects the blood vessels that feed it, and also protects the spinal cord.
It can be said that almost everyone has experienced neck pain all their lives. Neck pain can affect both men and women of all ages.
When the neck hurts, the reasons can be quite different. Some of them can resolve on their own within a few days, and some can provoke chronic illness and pain.
Why does pain occur?
The most common reason your neck hurts is poor posture. With the back bent, the head ceases to occupy a position just above the body and moves forward. In this position, the muscles and ligaments of the neck experience increased tension. The development of bent and neck pain is facilitated by prolonged work without changing position, sleeping on a soft bed or high pillow, prolonged static load.
Other causes of neck pain are injuries from falling with the head, in a car accident or during sports. With a sharp acceleration and then a stop, the cervical spine makes whiplash movements. As a result, the ligaments and muscles may become overstretched, displacement or compression fracture occurs in the cervical vertebrae and the formation of intervertebral hernias.
Neck pain can occur as a secondary manifestation of other diseases. For example, in a heart attack, when a heart attack causes severe pain radiating along the nerve plexuses to the upper limbs, chest, neck. Neck pain with a heart attack is only part of a large complex of symptoms - shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, vomiting. If your neck, jaw hurt and other signs of a heart attack occur, you should call an ambulance immediately.
Neck pain is also used as a diagnostic sign of meningitis. With this disease, the muscles of the neck become hypertensive, that is, they become hard. When you try to tilt your head towards your chest, your back hurts a lot.
The cervical spine hurts in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, spondylosis and osteoarthritis, hernia or bulge, with compression of the nerve roots or spinal cord with infectious edema, abscesses, tumor or benign neoplasms.
Special cases
Degenerative diseases
Osteochondrosis, or in other words, dystrophic disorders in the intervertebral discs, leads to the fact that a person's neck constantly hurts. This is usually a mild pain that is often accompanied by a tingling sensation and pain in the shoulder girdle and head.
The area of the collar affected by osteochondrosis can cause the development of cerebral artery syndrome. As the intervertebral distances in this area decrease, compression damage occurs in the vertebral arteries in the openings of the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae. The pressure on the vessel causes a decrease in blood flow to the brain with the appearance of dizziness, decreased vision and hearing. On the other hand, mechanical stimulation of the artery with pressure from the vertebrae causes reflex spasm, which manifests itself as a burning throbbing pain in the head.
Treatment
If the neck constantly hurts against the background of osteochondrosis, then therapy begins with the elimination of the pain syndrome. The second mandatory direction of treatment is the cessation of degenerative processes in the cervical spine.
Pain relief can be achieved with the help of the following groups of drugs:
- non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - directly block the cascade of mediators that signal pain;
- muscle relaxants - eliminate muscle spasm, reflexively resulting from severe pain;
- sedatives - they calm and inhibit the nervous system and the transmission of pain impulses, including (valerian, antidepressants, sleeping pills);
- vasodilators - help to eliminate the syndrome of the vertebral arteries and the pain associated with it.
To eliminate the cause of neck pain in osteochondrosis, chondroprotective drugs are prescribed, which prevent the destruction of cartilage and vertebrae, as well as multivitamin mineral complexes.
Pain management also consists of physiotherapy, physiotherapy, massage, traction, reflex and adhesive therapy. During exacerbations, to relieve pain, the patient is advised to wear a special collar that protects the neck from excessive mobility.
Muscle pain
Pain in the neck can occur when the muscles in the neck become inflamed, called myositis.
Such pain should be distinguished from neuritis (inflammation of the nerve trunks with sensory disturbance) and pain provoked by osteochondrosis.
Myositis occurs suddenly, after exposure to predisposing factors - hypothermia, vibration, prolonged overexertion, especially with prolonged repetitive movements of the same type.
Cervical myositis is characterized by sharp pain that occurs when the inflamed muscle contracts. The acute severity of the pain leads to difficulties in performing certain types of movements.
The long muscles of the neck on the anterolateral surface or the sternocleidomastoid muscles, which pull the head back in bilateral contractions and turn it over in unilateral contraction, usually hurt.
The deep muscles that surround the spine are also often inflamed and move the entire neck and back.
When probing a muscle, its increased tone and dense nodal areas are noted. Disruption of microcirculation and local trophism leads to gradual replacement of myocytes with connective tissue. As a result, the neck muscles weaken, their symmetry is broken on the side of the spine, torticollis can occur and it is difficult for the patient to keep his head upright.
Treatment
Treatment begins with reducing the load on the neck. There is a course of physiotherapy procedures - heating with UHF, electrophoresis with drugs, heating with paraffin, wrapping with ozokerite, diathermy, massage, acupuncture. Such procedures restore blood circulation in the muscles of the neck. The drugs are prescribed injections of B vitamins, anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, ointments and rubbing.
Alternative treatment recommends the use of cabbage or burdock leaves as analgesic compresses, preparation of ointment from crushed willow buds in oil, making a rubbing of a mixture of turpentine with apple cider vinegar and egg yolk. Also, the neck is rubbed with lava oil and then wrapped. The main guarantee for the success of any treatment is to keep the neck pain calm until its muscles fully recover. Then you need to start returning them to "service" through special gymnastics and massage.
Radicular syndrome
Severe neck pain that spreads to the muscles of the head, shoulder girdle, and upper limbs can occur when the roots of the spinal nerves are compressed during a prolapse, bulge, or herniated disc.
In this disease, the inner core of the disc extends to the spinal canal or its lateral horns. Hernia and its symptoms usually appear on one side. When pressure is put on the roots of the spinal nerves, a burning sharp pain (cervical lumbago) appears in the innervated muscles. The patient feels tingling in the lower jaw, the area around the ears, the back of the head, the shoulders, the hands. Dizziness, sharp pain in the neck when changing position from horizontal to vertical. The gradual protrusion of the disc nucleus leads to trauma to the surrounding tissues, their inflammation and swelling. This creates the preconditions for inflammation of the nerve endings with the development of radiculitis, the mobility of the neck and upper limbs is gradually limited. Prolonged damage to the spinal nerves leads to paresis or paralysis of the limbs.
Therapy
What to do if your neck hurts from a hernia? At home with pain syndrome take painkillers, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, hormonal drugs, muscle relaxants to relieve spasms.
In the hospital, severe neck pain is eliminated with the help of "blockades" - the introduction of anesthetics from the side of the spine.
Swelling and inflammation are treated with steroids that can be injected directly into the hernia. Muscle soreness is eliminated by taking muscle relaxants.
Also, to prevent further development of the hernia, I use drugs that strengthen cartilage - chondroprotectors.
In many cases, therapeutic exercises and traction traction of the cervical spine with a protrusion or slight bulge help. Increasing the intervertebral space helps to "retract" the intervertebral disc and relieve pressure on the nerves.
In a true hernia with rupture of the fibrous ring and prolapse of the nucleus in the spinal canal, surgery is required. There are several ways to get rid of neck pain through surgery:
- anterior cervical discectomy - removal of an additional piece of disc that compresses the spinal nerves;
- replacement of the damaged disc with an artificial joint, which protects the cervical spine from further destruction;
- microendoscopic dissectomy using a posterior approach and removal of small areas of the hernia with an endoscope;
- posterior cervical dissectomy by incision in the back of the neck. The working channel is specially enlarged so that pinching does not develop in the future.
Neoplasms
If there is constant pressing pain in the neck, the appearance of external education in this department may be suspected.
Benign or malignant tumors in the neck can occur in the body of the vertebrae, blood vessels, epithelium, connective, nerve, adipose or glandular tissue.
Benign tumors (lipoma, fibroma, neuroma, osteoma, hemangioma) are most often of the correct shape and clearly demarcated, rarely causing pain. The discomfort is mainly related to the compression of the surrounding tissue by the tumor. Malignant tumors (osteosarcoma, myeloma, lymph node or thyroid cancer) have no boundaries, they give many metastases to neighboring tissues. Their destructive effect on the organs causes a painful sensation, a general deterioration of the condition. The front of the neck can get cancer of the larynx, throat, oral organs, thyroid gland. The patient has difficulty swallowing, there is swelling of the neck and face, a change in voice. If the flight of the cervix hurts with a bone tumor, then this condition also often accompanies damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots on the side of the spine with the development of paralysis.
Treatment
The treatment of pain in neoplasms is aimed primarily at eliminating the cause - reducing or eliminating the swelling. For this purpose, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, hardening of the vessels supplying the tumor, and surgical removal of the pathological formation are used.
Pain relief depends on the severity of the pain:
- weak painkillers;
- moderate analgesics;
- with increasing pain switch to weak opiates;
- in severe pain, pain relief is possible only with the help of opiates. Antipsychotics, anticonvulsants and corticosteroids are used to improve the pain relief of neck pain with neoplasms.
Note! Neck pain can occur for a variety of reasons. In order not to miss serious illnesses, it is necessary first of all to visit a doctor for a consultation about the appearance of pain and the exact determination of its source.