The neck of humans, like other animals, is an extraordinary part of the body, rather fragile, but powerful.
The cervical spine, along with all the muscles and ligaments, supports and moves the skull, absorbs shocks when walking, protects the brain from concussions, protects the blood vessels that feed it, and also protects the spinal cord.
It can be argued that almost everyone has experienced neck pain throughout their life. Neck pain can affect both men and women at any age.
When the neck hurts, the reasons can be quite varied. Some of them can resolve on their own in a few days and others can cause chronic pain and illness.
Why does the pain occur?
The most common reason your neck hurts is poor posture. With a curved back, the head ceases to occupy a position exactly above the body and moves forward. In this position, the muscles and ligaments in the neck experience greater tension. The development of curvature and pain in the neck is facilitated by prolonged work without changing position, sleeping on a soft bed or a high pillow, prolonged static load.
Other causes of neck pain are injuries from falling upside down, in a car accident or while playing sports. With a sharp acceleration and then braking, the cervical spine makes a whip motion. As a result, ligaments and muscles can stretch excessively, a 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, with a heart attack, when a heart attack causes severe pain, radiating along the nerve plexuses to the upper limbs, chest, neck. Pain in the neck with a heart attack is only part of a large symptom complex: shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, vomiting. If pain in the neck, jaw and other signs of a heart attack are observed, call an ambulance immediately.
Neck pain is also used as a diagnostic sign of meningitis. With this disease, the neck muscles become hypertonic, that is, they become stiff. When you try to tilt your head towards your chest, the back of your neck hurts a lot.
The spine in the neck area hurts with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, spondylosis and osteoarthritis, hernia or protrusion, with compression of the nerve roots or spinal cord with infectious edema, abscesses, cancerous 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 aching pain, which is often accompanied by a feeling of numbness and pains in the shoulder girdle and head.
The neck area affected by osteochondrosis can cause the development of cerebral artery syndrome. With a decrease in intervertebral distances in this area, compression damage to the vertebral arteries occurs 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 onset of dizziness, decreased vision and hearing. On the other hand, mechanical stimulation of the artery with the pressure of the vertebrae causes a reflex spasm, which manifests itself as a stabbing burning pain in the head.
Treatment
If the neck constantly hurts against the background of osteochondrosis, therapy begins with the elimination of the pain syndrome. The second mandatory direction of treatment is to stop the degenerative processes in the cervical vertebrae.
Pain relief can be achieved using the following drug groups:
- 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 - soothe and inhibit the nervous system and the transmission of pain impulses, including (valerian, antidepressants, sleeping pills);
- vasodilators - help eliminate vertebral artery syndrome and the pain associated with it.
To eliminate the cause of neck pain in osteochondrosis, chondroprotective drugs are prescribed that prevent the destruction of cartilage and vertebrae, as well as multivitamin mineral complexes.
Pain management also includes physical therapy, physiotherapy, massage, traction, reflexology and taping. During an exacerbation, to relieve pain, the patient is advised to wear a special collar that protects the neck from excessive mobility.
Muscular pain
Neck pain 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 a sensory disturbance) and pain caused by osteochondrosis.
Myositis occurs suddenly, after exposure to predisposing factors: hypothermia, vibrations, prolonged exertion, especially with prolonged repetitive movements of the same type.
Cervical myositis is characterized by acute pain that occurs when the inflamed muscle contracts. The severe severity of the pain leads to difficulties in performing certain types of movement.
Usually the long muscles of the neck on the anterolateral surface or the sternocleidomastoid muscles, which, with a bilateral contraction, pull the head back, and with a unilateral contraction, turn it over, usually hurt.
The deep muscles surrounding the spine are also often inflamed and set the entire neck and back in motion.
When probing a muscle, its increased tone and dense knotty areas are noted. Violation of microcirculation and local trophism leads to the gradual replacement of myocytes with connective tissue. As a result, the neck muscles weaken, their symmetry is broken at the sides of the spine, a stiff neck may appear, and it is difficult for the patient to keep his head straight.
Treatment
Treatment begins with reducing the strain on the neck. A course of physiotherapeutic procedures follows: warming with UHF, electrophoresis with drugs, warming with paraffin, wrapping with ozokerite, diathermy, massage, acupuncture. Such procedures restore blood circulation to the neck muscles. Of the drugs, injections of vitamins of group B, anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, ointments and rubs are prescribed.
Alternative treatment recommends using cabbage or burdock leaves as compresses to relieve pain, make an ointment from willow buds pounded in butter, rub from a mixture of turpentine with apple cider vinegar and egg yolk. Further, the neck is rubbed with lava oil and then wrapped. The main guarantee of the success of any treatment is to keep the aching neck calm until the muscles are completely restored. Then you should begin to return them "properly" by means of special gymnastics and massage.
Radicular syndrome
Severe pain in the neck, spreading to the muscles of the head, shoulder girdle, upper limbs, can occur when the spinal nerve roots are pinched during prolapse, protrusion or herniated disc.
With this disease, the inner core of the disc protrudes towards the spinal canal or its lateral horns. A hernia and its symptoms usually appear on one side. When pressure is created on the spinal nerve roots, sharp, burning pain appears in the innervated muscles (cervical low back pain). The patient feels numbness in the lower jaw, the area around the ears, the back of the head, shoulder blades, arms. Dizziness, severe pain in the neck appear when changing position from horizontal to vertical. The gradual protrusion of the disc nucleus leads to trauma to the surrounding tissues, their inflammation and edema. This creates the prerequisites for inflammation of the nerve endings with the development of radiculitis, the mobility of the neck and upper limbs is gradually limited. Prolonged violation of the spinal nerves leads to paresis or paralysis of the limbs.
Therapy
What to do if the neck hurts with a hernia? At home, with pain syndrome, painkillers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, hormonal drugs, muscle relaxants are taken to relieve spasms.
In the hospital, severe pain in the neck is eliminated with the help of "blocks" - the introduction of anesthetic substances to the sides of the spine.
Swelling and inflammation are treated with steroids that can be injected directly into the hernia. Muscle pain is eliminated by taking muscle relaxants.
Also, to prevent further development of the hernia, I use drugs that strengthen cartilage tissue - chondroprotector.
In many cases, therapeutic exercises and traction traction of the cervical spine with protrusion or slight protrusion help. The increase in the intervertebral space aids in the "retraction" of the intervertebral disc and relieves pressure on the nerves.
In a true hernia with rupture of the fibrous ring and prolapse of the nucleus into the spinal canal, surgery is required. There are several ways to get rid of neck pain through surgery:
- anterior cervical discectomy - removal of an extra piece of disc that presses on 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 hernia using an endoscope;
- posterior cervical dissectomy through an incision in the back of the neck. The operating channel has been specially expanded so that pinching does not develop in the future.
neoplasms
If there is constant pressing pain in the neck, the appearance of a foreign education in this department can be suspected.
Benign or malignant neck tumors can arise in the vertebral body, blood vessels, epithelium, connective, nervous, adipose or glandular tissue.
Benign tumors (lipoma, fibroma, neuroma, osteoma, hemangioma) are most often of the correct form and clearly limited, rarely cause pain. The discomfort is mainly associated with the compression of the surrounding tissue by the tumor. Malignant tumors (osteosarcoma, myeloma, cancer of the lymph nodes or thyroid) have no boundaries, they give a lot of metastases to nearby 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. The patient has difficulty swallowing, there are swelling in the neck and face, a change in the voice. If the cervical flight hurts with a bone tumor, this condition often also accompanies damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots on the side of the spine with the development of paralysis.
Treatment
Treatment of pain in cancer is mainly aimed at eliminating the cause, by reducing or removing swelling. For this purpose, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, hardening of the vessels feeding the tumor and surgical removal of the pathological formation are used.
Pain relief depends on the severity of the pain:
- weak pain relievers;
- painkillers of moderate severity;
- as pain increases, they switch to weak opiates;
- with severe pain, analgesia is possible only with the help of opiate drugs. To improve the analgesia of neck pain with neoplasms, antipsychotics, anticonvulsants and corticosteroids are used.
Note! Neck pain can occur for a variety of reasons. In order not to miss serious diseases, it is first of all necessary to visit a doctor to consult the onset of pain and the exact determination of its source.