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 sets the skull in motion, absorbs shock when walking, protects the brain from concussion, protects the blood vessels that feed it, and also protects the spinal cord.
It can be argued that almost everyone has experienced neck pain in their lifetime. 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 lead to chronic illness and pain.
Why does pain occur?
The most common reason your neck hurts is poor posture. With the back bent, the head stops occupying a position exactly above the body and moves forward. In this position, the muscles and ligaments of the neck experience greater tension. The development of neck pain and slouching 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 injury from falling on your head, in a traffic accident, or while playing sports. With strong acceleration and then braking, the cervical spine makes a whipping motion. As a result, the ligaments and muscles can be overstretched, causing a displacement or compression fracture of 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 extremities, chest, and neck. Neck pain with a heart attack is just part of a large complex of symptoms: shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, vomiting. If your neck, jaw, and other signs of a heart attack are observed, you should immediately call an ambulance.
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 lean 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, 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. It is usually a mild pain, which is usually accompanied by a feeling of numbness and pain in the shoulder girdle and head.
The area of the collar affected by osteochondrosis can lead to the development of cerebral artery syndrome. With a decrease in intervertebral distances in this area, compression damage of the vertebral arteries occurs at 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 a reflex spasm, which manifests as a burning stabbing 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 degenerative processes in the cervical vertebrae.
Pain relief can be achieved through the use of the following groups of drugs:
- non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - directly block the cascade of pain-signaling mediators;
- muscle relaxants: eliminate muscle spasms that arise reflexively from severe pain;
- sedatives - relieve 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 consists of physical therapy, physical therapy, massage, traction, reflexes, and bandage therapy. During an exacerbation, to relieve pain, the patient is recommended to wear a special collar that protects the neck from excessive mobility.
Muscle pain
Neck pain can occur when the neck muscles become inflamed, which is called myositis.
Such pain must be distinguished from neuritis (inflammation of the nerve trunks with a sensory disorder) and pain caused 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 difficulty in performing certain types of movement.
Usually the long muscles of the neck on the anterolateral surface or the sternocleidomastoid muscles hurt, which, with a bilateral contraction, pull the head back, and with a unilateral contraction, turn it.
The deep muscles that surround the spine are also often inflamed, putting the entire neck and back in motion.
When probing a muscle, you notice its increased tone and dense knotty areas. Violation of microcirculation and local trophism leads to the gradual replacement of myocytes with connective tissue. As a result, the neck muscles are weakened, their symmetry is broken on the sides of the spine, torticollis may appear, and it is difficult for the patient to keep the head straight.
Treatment
Treatment begins with reducing the tension in the neck. This is followed by a course of physiotherapeutic procedures: UHF heating, drug electrophoresis, paraffin heating, ozokerite wrapping, diathermy, massage, acupuncture. These procedures restore blood circulation to the neck muscles. Of the drugs, injections of B vitamins, anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, ointments and rubs are prescribed.
Alternative treatment recommends using cabbage or burdock leaves as compresses to relieve pain, preparing an ointment from crushed willow yolks in butter, rubbing with 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 of the success of any treatment is to keep the neck pain calm until your muscles are completely restored. Then you need to begin to return them "to service" by means of special gymnastics and massages.
Root syndrome
Severe neck pain, which spreads to the muscles of the head, shoulder girdle, and upper extremities, can occur when spinal nerve roots are pinched during disc prolapse, bulging, or herniation.
With this disease, the inner nucleus of the disc protrudes into the spinal canal or its lateral horns. A hernia and its symptoms usually appear on one side. When pressure is created on the roots of the spinal nerves, a sharp, burning pain appears in the innervated muscles (cervical lumbago). The patient feels numbness in the lower jaw, the area around the ears, the back of the head, the shoulder blades, and the arms. Dizziness appears, sharp neck pain when changing position from horizontal to vertical. The gradual bulging 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 extremities is gradually limited. Prolonged infringement of the spinal nerves leads to paresis or paralysis of the extremities.
Therapy
What to do if my 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 "blockages" - the introduction of anesthetic substances on 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 hernia, I use drugs that strengthen cartilage tissue - chondroprotectors.
In many cases, therapeutic exercises and traction of the protruding or mildly protruding cervical spine help. Increasing the disc space helps to "retract" the disc and relieve pressure on the nerves.
In a true hernia with rupture of the annulus fibrosus and prolapse of the nucleus into the spinal canal, surgery is required. There are several ways to eliminate neck pain through surgery:
- anterior cervical discectomy - removal of an additional 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 discectomy by posterior approach and removal of small areas of hernia through an endoscope;
- Posterior cervical discectomy through an incision in the back of the neck. The operating channel is specially widened so that no pinching occurs in the future.
Neoplasms
If there is constant oppressive pain in the neck, the appearance of strange education in this department can be suspected.
Benign or malignant tumors in the neck can arise in the vertebral body, blood vessels, epithelium, connective, nervous, adipose, or glandular tissue.
Benign tumors (lipoma, fibroma, neuroma, osteoma, hemangioma) are usually of the correct shape and are clearly limited, rarely causing pain. The discomfort is mainly associated with compression of the surrounding tissue by the tumor. Malignant tumors (osteosarcoma, myeloma, cancer of the lymph nodes or of the thyroid gland) do not have borders, they metastasize to neighboring tissues. Its destructive effect on the organs causes a painful sensation, a general deterioration of the condition. The front of the neck can get sick with cancer of the larynx, throat, oral organs, thyroid gland. The patient has difficulty swallowing, there is swelling in the neck and face, a change in the voice. If cervical flight 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
Treatment of pain in neoplasms is primarily aimed at eliminating the cause: reducing or eliminating 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;
- pain relievers of moderate severity;
- with increasing pain, they switch to weak opioids;
- with severe pain, analgesia is possible only with the help of opioid drugs. To enhance analgesia for 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, first of all it is necessary to visit a doctor to consult about the appearance of pain and the exact determination of its origin.