Conditions
Neck Pain
What is neck pain?
Neck pain is one of the most common complaints. Pain can result from poor posture, medical conditions such as osteoarthritis, muscle strains, nerve compression and other diseases. Pain is often described to be worsening when your head is in one position for long periods of time such as working on a computer, driving, or sleeping. There are different types of pain such as acute (less than 4 weeks), subacute (4 to 12 weeks) and chronic pain (greater than 3 months). Often neck pain may be sharp and located in one spot or it may also spread to other regions such as your arms or back. Symptoms of neck pain are described as: muscle tightness and spasms, decreased ability to move your head, radiating pain to arms and back and/or dull pain with headache. Please see below for more information regarding neck pain causes, symptoms and treatment types.
What causes neck pain?
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Muscle Strains
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Trauma or Injury (damage to muscles, tendons, ligaments or nerves)
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Herniated Cervical Disk
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Arthritis
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Stress
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Posture
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Disc Disease
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Spinal Stenosis
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Osteoporosis
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Fibromyalgia
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Age
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Lack of Exercise
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Smoking
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Improper Lifting
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Injury
Symptoms
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Common complaints of people experiencing neck pain are:
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Neck Pain
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Headache
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Reduced range of motion
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Pain radiating to upper extremities such as arms
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Weakness or sensory changes to neck, or upper extremities
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Coordination and balance difficulties
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Numbness or weakness
Treatment
Treatments range from conservative treatment to surgery. Our goal is to provide you with the best treatment plan to reduce pain, but these treatments do not change the underlying source of pain. Medical treatments are often used in combination such as: medications, physical therapy programs, and injection therapy.
Treats radiating pain; deposit the medication, typically steroids in the epidural space of the spine.
+ Nerve root block injections
Targets a specific spinal nerve and deposit medication around the nerve at the point where it exits the intervertebral foramen (bony opening between adjacent vertebrae).
+ Facet joint injections
Treat pain stemming from a specific facet joint.
Deposit medication around the medial branches of spinal nerves. The medial branch is a nerve that sends pain signals to the brain from an arthritic facet joint. An injection directed around the medial branch can relieve neck and lower back pain.
+ Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)
Treats pain by lesioning medial branch nerves of the facet joints.
