Frequently seen people feel their neck pain, shoulder pain, long-term can not be relieved, they suspect that they have "cervical spondylosis". When you go to the hospital and take an X-ray, the film says "cervical curvature is straightened, cervical spondylolisthesis", so you think you have "cervical spondylosis".
One of the causes:
There are many reasons for neck and shoulder pain. The first thing to rule out is heart disease. Coronary artery disease myocardial ischemia will cause the left side of the chest, left shoulder pain, which is the first need to do electrocardiogram, check the myocardial enzyme spectrum to exclude. Secondly, to rule out cholecystitis, gallbladder inflammation stimulation of the diaphragm will cause pain in the top of the right shoulder, to do ultrasound to rule out.
Prolonged head-down work can lead to cervical disc degeneration and herniation (Figure 1). The body compensates by developing hyperplasia of the cervical intervertebral joints (hook vertebral joints) and ligamentum flavum, which in turn compresses the nerves, spinal cord, vertebral arteries, and the sympathetic nerves in the vertebral artery ependyma leading to a series of signs and symptoms.
Figure 1. Prolonged head-down work can lead to degeneration and herniation of the cervical discs, which can compress the nerves.
Second, the performance:
The disease is often manifested as neck pain, fatigue, can also lead to arm numbness, pain. Severe manifestations of numbness and weakness of the upper and lower limbs, as well as dizziness, memory loss, panic, blurred vision and other manifestations.
Three, prevention:
How to prevent cervical spondylosis?
1. First of all, we should avoid long-term uninterrupted low head posture (including work at the desk, reading the cell phone, surfing the Internet, playing mahjong, etc.). Get up every hour and move around, such as radio gymnastics, tai chi, etc., or just give yourself 5 minutes to kick your legs and move your back.2. Secondly, adopt the correct sitting posture, as shown in the figure below (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Correct sitting posture
3. Strengthen your neck muscles. Can jogging, swimming, but also includes "square dance". These are whole-body activities that not only exercise the heart and lungs, but also exercise the muscles of the whole body (including the neck).
Four, treatment:
Once you have cervical spondylosis, how do you treat it?
Non-surgical treatment is aimed at eliminating nerve root edema and reducing local inflammation; relaxing the neck muscles and reducing the pressure within the intervertebral discs; and eliminating the inflammatory reaction within the muscles of the neck segment to break the vicious cycle. For patients with "only neck pain symptoms, no or mild numbness in the arm", non-surgical treatment is recommended.
Methods include:
1. Rest and braking, avoiding all activities in a prolonged head-down position. Wearing a neck brace can relax the neck muscles and relieve neck pain. However, wearing a neck brace for a long period of time will cause the neck muscles to relax, and once the brace is removed, it will be difficult to play the role of stabilizing the cervical vertebrae, further aggravating the symptoms. The latest international viewpoint is "combination of static and dynamic". That is, the pain of the acute period of rest and braking, pain relief, appropriate activities, in order to ease the neck muscle spasm, to rebuild the body's neck muscle dynamic balance of the purpose.
2. (In the regular hospital) physiotherapy, massage, massage, hot compresses can play a "blood circulation, anti-inflammatory pain" purpose.
3. Traction is effective in relieving muscle spasm in the neck and is a passive measure to relieve nerve root compression, which is temporarily effective. However, traction is strictly prohibited for spinal cord cervical spondylosis with limb weakness.
4. Medications can be used to treat cervical spondylosis, including anti-inflammatory and pain relieving medications such as flurbiprofen and pain relieving creams, oral medications such as celecoxib and etoricoxib, swelling relieving medications such as mazolol, muscle relaxing medications such as epirubicin, and nutritive medications such as methylcobalamin.
For conservative treatment 3-6 months ineffective; pain and nerve root damage symptoms of progressive aggravation; and seriously affect the quality of life of patients, can be performed disc removal, cervical interbody fusion stabilization and other surgical treatment.