NECK PAIN TREATMENT IN JAIPUR

Causes of neck pain:

1. Whiplash injury or neck injury/accident: In some accidents due to sudden forward and backward movement of head over neck, causes soft tissue injury esp injury to ligaments, muscles, facet joints of neck. It presents severe dull-aching pain in neck, with pain on neck movements. Associated nausea, vomiting, vertigo, dizziness could also be present. Neck Pain Treatment involves resting the neck and giving injured tissues time to heal.

2. Poor posture: Nowadays, this has become the most common cause of neck pain.

Causes are:
a. Text-neck syndrome or looking continuously down while using mobile.
b. Sleeping in abnormal position i.e. prone lying, using thick pillows, etc.
c. Prolonged use of phone on one side.
d. Working for long hours on computer.

3. Cervical spondylosis or degenerative cervical disease: Due to overuse or repetitive strain over neck ligaments & discs, degenerative changes in cervical spine like osteophytes formation, disc bulge, nerve compression, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, etc. may develop.

4. Cervical facet joint strain/ osteoarthritis/ facet joint arthropathy: Due to long standing poor posture or degenerative changes, cervical facet joints get inflamed and develop osteoarthritis changes. Also nerves supplying these facet joints i.e. medial branches of dorsal ramus, also get oversensitized and generate pain in neck.

5. Cervical disc bulge or herniated disc or cervical disc prolapse: Intervertebral disc can herniate or bulge due to acute trauma or repeated cervical flexion/rotation activities, causing inflammation/ swelling/ compression of cervical nerve roots, that produce sciatica like pain in arm/ forearm/ hand/ fingers. It can also lead to numbness, weakness in hand muscles too.

6. Rare: causes include tumours, infection, rheumatoid arthritis,etc.

Symptoms of neck pain:

a. Dull aching pain in neck or upper back or shoulders.
b. Feeling of stiffness or muscle spasm.
c. Unable to move neck.
d. Sharp current like or shooting pain in arm, forearm, hand, fingers or upper back on attempted movement of neck.
e. Tingling sensation, burning pain, Weakness, numbness or heaviness in arm or hand.
f. Associated symptoms like headache, nausea, vertigo, dizziness, vomiting.

Diagnosis: is by clinical examination mainly. X-ray of cervical spine can be ordered to rule out bony abnormalities. MRI cervical spine is used to rule out disc prolapse, nerve compression, spinal stenosis, etc

For details of treatment, consult Spine and Pain medicine specialist Dr. Sanjeev K. Sharma.