Category: Neck and Back

  • 23
  • Jun
Neck Injuries
ps Neck and Back,Spine Comments Off on Neck Injuries

Minor neck injuries may result from tripping, falling a short distance, or excessive twisting of the spine. Severe neck injuries may result from whiplash in a car accident, or sports-related injuries.

“Burners” and “Stingers”

If you’ve played contact sports and suffered a burner or a stinger, you remember it. The pain shoots from the shoulder to the hand “like an electric shock or lightning bolt down the arm”. A burner or stinger is an injury to the nerve supply to the upper arm, either at the neck or shoulder, often following a fall onto the head – for example, following a tackle in football.

What Happens?

When the head is forced sideways and downward, it bends the neck and pinches the surrounding nerves. As a result, you may feel numbness or weakness in the arm and possibly a feeling of warmth.

Usually the symptoms subside quickly – within seconds or minutes – but in up to 10 percent of cases, the unpleasant sensations can last hours, days, or longer.

What Should be Done?

You should immediately get checked by a doctor. An examination will confirm the type of injury. If the symptoms pass, you will probably need no treatment. But you may need further medical attention if you experience weakness lasting more than a few days, neck pain, symptoms in both arms, or if you have a history of recurrent stingers or burners. Having a narrow spinal canal – spinal stenosis – may make you more prone to burners and stingers.

Whiplash

When your head is jerked violently and unexpectedly backward or forward – typically in a car accident or during contact sports – the resulting injury is known as whiplash. It can also be called cervical sprain (or strain) or hyperextension injury.

Whiplash Injury
Whiplash Injury

What Happens in a Whiplash Injury?

The pain is caused by the soft tissues (muscles, tendons, and ligaments) of the neck being forced to the very limit of their range of motion. If the ligaments are torn, there will be internal bleeding bleeding between them and the vertebrae. You may start to feel pain and experience stiffness in the neck within minutes or it make take several hours for symptoms to be felt. Further symptoms that result from whiplash may include neck spasms, dizziness, and headache.

What Should be Done?

It’s important to seek medical help as soon as possible. Modern surgical treatment with internal fixation (screws, plates, rods) has eliminated the need for cast treatment in all but the most unusual circumstances. A plastic collar may be used for a short period.

Subject to your doctor’s advice, anti-inflammatories and physiotherapy may help relieve discomfort in the early stages the recovery process.

You can expect a full recovery within a couple of weeks, although some people have problems for longer.

Neck Injury Specialist

Dr Mathew Tung

Dr Mathew Tung Neurosurgeon

Book Appointment Online for neck injury specialist Treatment

  • 20
  • Jun
Cervical Spondylosis
ps Neck and Back,Spine Comments Off on Cervical Spondylosis

As we age, the joints in our necks show signs of wear and tear and this can lead to changes in the neck vertebrae as the body adapts to joint damage. Another term for osteoarthritis of the neck is known as cervical spondylosis.

Cervical Spondylosis

Symptoms for Cervical Spondylosis

The symptoms of cervical spondylosis are variable. If you have this condition, you may find your neck has gotten stiffer over time, though the onset of symptoms can also be quite sudden. The pain may be in the neck itself, between or over the shoulder blades. If a nerve is pinched, pain and / or pins and needles can be felt from the shoulder down as far as the fingers.

You may feel numbness in your shoulders and arms and rarely, the legs – in which case you need to seek medical advice promptly. Sometimes symptoms are worse after standing or sitting (especially in a draft), or in the morning if you slept in an awkward position, when you sneeze, cough, or laugh, or bend your neck backward.

Discomfort can be mild, or you may have pain so severe that you cannot move your head. You may have attacks of vertigo if you move your head quickly. The symptoms can be constant, or you may have flare-ups. In all cases get medical advice.

Some people in whom X-rays reveal the presence of cervical spondylosis exhibit no symptoms at all.

What Causes Cervical Spondylosis?

Age is not the only cause of wear on the bones and soft tissues of the neck. Years of regular sporting activities or doing a physical job that has placed stress on the neck can have the same effect.

There are several other risk factors for cervical spondylosis. These include being overweight and lack of exercise, a past neck injury – sometimes many years before – previous spinal surgery, a damage intervertebral disc, and the effects of osteoporosis.

Prevention to Cervical Spondylosis

It’s hard to avoid the stresses and strains of everyday life that contribute to the development of cervical spondylosis. But you can reduce the impact by paying attention to the posture and lifestyle.

Fixing Cervical Spondylosis

It’s important to keep your neck gently moving so it does not stiffen up. Oral anti-inflammatories may help and the doctor may give you something more powerful on an occasional basis for flare ups.

Your doctor may recommend physiotherapy which can bring relief of symptoms to some people.

Cervical Spondylolisthesis

Sometimes a condition called spondylolisthesis can be a complication of cervical spondylosis. When it occurs in the neck, the condition is often termed subaxial subluxation. One of the vertebrae slips forward (if it slips backward the condition is called retrolisthesis) so it’s out of line with the rest of the spine. This may happen because of progressive degeneration or due to trauma such as a motor vehicle collision. If the slippage is slight, you may not experience any symptoms. But if the misaligned vertebra presses against a nerve, the pain can be severe and you may have tingling or numbness in the arms and / or legs.

What is the Treatment for Cervical Spondylolisthesis

The treatment for spondylolisthesis is initially the same as for cervical spondylosis. But if things do not settle down, you may need a surgery. Fusion of the vertebrae around the area of slippage is an option that if often recommended, especially when there are symptoms of nerve compression. In some cases the vertebrae are fused where they are after the slip.

Cervical Spondylolisthesis Specialist

Dr Mathew Tung

Dr Mathew Tung Neurosurgeon

Book Appointment Online for cervical spondylosis Treatment

  • 16
  • Jun
Wry Neck
ps Neck and Back Comments Off on Wry Neck

You will certainly know if you’ve had the temporary disabling condition called wry neck, known medically torticollis.

Symptoms of Wry Neck

Torticollis

You can go to bed feeling just fine and wake up in the morning hardly able to straighten your head and neck. As well as looking lopsided, you may also experience headache, head tremors, or neck pain. Your neck muscles will feel stiff and tender and one shoulder may be raised. See a doctor at once if you believe you may have suffered a neck injury.

What Causes Wry Neck?

The cause is usually soft-tissue damage or irritation. Common triggers include exposure of the neck muscles to cold – for example, by sleeping in a drafty room – sitting or sleeping in an unusual position without proper neck support or with too many pillows, poor posture in front of a computer screen, or carrying a heavy, unbalanced load.

A tendency to wry neck can run in families – when it is known a spasmodic torticollis – and usually starts with muscle spasms in middle age. Without treatment, the condition can become permanent. Babies can be born with wry neck if their head is in the wrong position in the womb or if the muscles or blood supply to neck are damaged.

Figuring Out What’s Wrong With Your Wry Neck

Your doctor will probably be able to make a diagnosis by taking a history and examining you. To rule out more serious causes of your problem, he or she may send you for further tests like an X-ray or MRI.

Fixing Wry Neck

The good news is that torticollis usually passes within a day or two, though you may still have some symptoms after a week or more. Applying heat may ease the stiffness. You could also try a soft neck collar.

Oral anti-inflammatories may be helpful. Or your doctor may prescribe something stronger such as a muscle relaxant or a drug used to treat muscle spasm – orally or by injection. In a few cases surgery may become necessary.

In children who are born with torticollis, the aim is to stretch their shortened neck muscles; treatment is usually successful, if started early.

Wry Neck Specialist

Dr Mathew Tung

Dr Mathew Tung Neurosurgeon

Book Appointment Online for Wry Neck Treatment

  • 07
  • Jun
3 Types of Spine Deformity: Kyphosis, Scoliosis and Lordosis
ps General,Neck and Back,Spine Comments Off on 3 Types of Spine Deformity: Kyphosis, Scoliosis and Lordosis

There are three types of spinal curvature: kyphosis, in which the spine of the upper back tilts forward; scoliosis, in which the spine curves either to the left or right; and lordosis, when the lower back arches outward. Such problems can either be present at birth or develop later.

Kyphosis

Many people have a small amount of forward rounding of their upper back, but doctors don’t usually consider the problem to be kyphosis unless the degree of rounding is greater than 40 degrees. If the cause of kyphosis is long-standing poor posture or an underlying disease process, the degree of rounding is likely to increase and may cause painful symptoms.

Symptoms

When kyphosis is severe, symptoms may include not just a rounded back but also backache and some breathing difficulties. This last symptom is because the forward tilt of the spine pushes the ribs in toward the lungs and constricts their ability to expand.

What Causes Kyphosis?

When a curvature is present at birth, it’s likely that it’s been caused by a rare developmental problem that fused or distorted the baby’s vertebrae. Kyphosis may also develop during adolescence, especially in girls, when slouching posture stretches the ligaments that support the spine. Scheuermann’s  disease, a condition of unknown cause that runs in families and affects more boys than girls, may have the same effect. When kyphosis develops in adulthood, it is usually due to another condition, through poor posture also plays a part. The culprits may be osteoporosis, which sometimes leads to a dowager’s hump; osteoarthritis; rheumatoid arthritis; and ankylosing spondylitis. Occasionally, disorders that affect muscles and connective tissue or tumours may also be responsible.

Prevention

Good posture is vitally important, especially during late childhood and adolescence, so encourage your children to adopt a correct posture. For adults, physiotherapy may be useful. If you think you’re developing kyphosis, consult a doctor.

Scoliosis

Scoliosis Bending Down

While kyphosis is an outward and upward curve of the thoracic spine, scoliosis is a spinal curve in a different plane – either right or left of a normal spine, as seen from behind. In the classic manifestation of scoliosis, the spine comes to adopt either C or S shape.

Scoliosis affects about twice as many girls as boys, and is most likely to develop any time from early childhood through to adolescence.

Symptoms

Other than the curvature of the spine – and sometimes a difference in the apparent height of the shoulders or the hips – there are often no symptoms, though there may be some back pain. In severe cases, the curvature of the spine may affect the movement of the ribs and even the heart, causing shortness of breath and chest pain.

What Causes Scoliosis?

In about 80% pf cases, the cause of scoliosis is unknown, though the condition often runs in families. However, an apparent scoliosis can also result from muscular imbalances caused by poor posture, a discrepancy in leg length or overdevelopment of the muscles on one side of the spine, as is seen in some professional tennis players. Another type of scoliosis – generally referred to as functional scoliosis – can develop as a response to a painful stimulus, such as herniated disc. Or sometimes a severe form of the problem results from a defect in a way that the spinal bones develop in the womb (congenital scoliosis).

Osteoarthritis and osteoporosis can also cause scoliosis if the damage they cause mostly affects one side of the spine.

Prevention

Scoliosis can generally be prevented only when it is caused by muscular imbalances that are created, and then worsened, by poor posture. In those instances, paying attention to your posture can help stave off the problem. Physiotherapy may help in this situation.

Figuring Out What’s Wrong

X-ray of the spine will be helpful to see the severity of the scoliosis.

Fixing The Problem

Functional scoliosis is treated by addressing the problem causing the muscular imbalance, often by means of physiotherapy. When scoliosis is idiopathic in a young person, a brace may be fitted to stop the curvature from becoming worse as growth continues. Surgery is generally advised for a young person if there are additional symptoms such as pain, breathing difficulty, or heart problems. Depending on the cause, this may involve the realignment of vertebrae followed by spinal fusion to fix them in place, or the removal of osteophytes – bony outgrowths from the vertebrae – formed as a result of osteoarthritis.

Lordosis

Lordosis

The left hand side of the picture shows a natural inward curve of the vertebral column in the lower back. In some people this becomes exaggerated, and in these cases the condition is known as lordosis.

Lordosis can cause pain and limit movement. It also reduces the spine’s efficiency as a shock absorber. As a result, even minor injury can cause damage to muscles, ligament, and vertebrae.

What Causes Lordosis?

Although lordosis tends to run in families, and in some cases can be present at birth as a result of developmental problems in the womb, most cases are caused by bad posture. The problem can also arise in later life as a result of a number of other conditions that cause degeneration of the spinal column, such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Injury to the neck and back can also be a contributory factor.

What Are The Symptoms?

Apart from an unnatural and ungainly posture, neither cervical nor lumbar lordosis usually cause any symptoms, other than mild limitation in movement and sometimes mild discomfort. On rare occasions, severe lordosis may cause pressure on nerves as they leave the spinal cord, causing problems at the nerve’s root.

Prevention

The most important preventive measure you can take is to be vigilant about maintaining good postures at all times, and to be ready to make necessary adjustments throughout the day.

Figuring Out What’s Wrong

Lordosis is diagnosed by observation and confirmed by X-rays. The doctor will also check on the range of movement of your spine to see if it has become limited in any way.

Fixing The Problem

Often mild lordosis does not require specific treatment. But if the condition is causing pain, you may be advised to take medication or injection. A physical therapy program may be suggested, with the aim of improving your range of movement.

The emphasis of treatment is on correcting your posture and maintaining the improvement by constant vigilance.

Spine Specialist

Dr Mathew Tung

Dr Mathew Tung Neurosurgeon

Book Appointment Online for Spine Corrective Treatment

  • 03
  • Jun
How to Prevent Lower Back Pain at Work?
ps Neck and Back Comments Off on How to Prevent Lower Back Pain at Work?

Desk Work

Any job that involves sitting down for hours at a time, particularly if the position is unvarying, is likely to lead to pressure on the discs between the vertebrae. In a sitting position the action of the iliopsoas muscle exerts a continuous pressure on the vertebrae in your lower back. The increased pressure in a sitting position raises the risk of the disc moving out of place or losing the soft, cushiony material inside. It also reduces the space between the vertebrae, leading to an increased likelihood of facet joint problems. What’s more, if your sitting posture isn’t good, there’s also risk that the damage will be long term.

How to reduce your risk:

  • Take frequent breaks to walk and stretch.
  • Adjust your sitting posture.
  • Check that your chair and desk are at a suitable height and that your chair back is angled correctly.

Driving Jobs

Any job that involves long periods behind the wheel involves a risk to back health. Some of these are the same as for any other sedentary work, principally, disc compression. Perhaps surprisingly, the backs of those who drive cars are more at risk than those who drive trucks, buses and other large vehicles for a living. This is because the angled position that many car drivers adopt involves a greater strain on the back than the more upright posture of a truck driver. When you are tilted back, too much of the driver’s weight is placed on the lower back. In an upright position much of your weight is supported by your thighs. Unfortunately, the constant vibration of driving has a damaging effect on the spine in all types of vehicle.

It’s also worth mentioning the risk of whiplash injuries. These most commonly occur as a result of motor vehicle accidents in which there is an impact either from the front or behind. Whiplash injuries can cause back, neck, and shoulder pain that may persist for several months. What’s more, the kinds of impact that cause whiplash may occasionally cause more serious spinal damage.

How to reduce your risk:

  • Whether a driver or a passenger, always have a headrest in position to prevent the neck from jerking backward in a collision.

Standing Jobs

A large number of jobs can involve long periods of standing. These include retail work, security, restaurant and bar work, and many others. The back risk in this type of work is that tiredness can lead to poor posture, which in turn can create stresses on your spine and in the surrounding muscles.

How to reduce your risk:

  • Walk about whenever you can.
  • If possible, stand with one foot up on a stool or footrail. It takes a lot of stress off the low back. Alternate the foot you rest periodically.
  • Do stretching exercises every hour or so.
  • Lie down, if practical, during longer breaks.

Jobs That Involve Lifting, Carrying, and Repeated Movements

Day after day, week after week, you can perform the same movement without a problem, then one day you feel your back “go.” This is because regular strain on he back along with poor posture can damage the discs over time, so that, eventually, even a minor stress can cause a disc to rupture or prolapse. Other possible problems related to regular stress include inflammation of the facet joints and over-stretching of the supporting ligaments – both which can weaken the whole structure, and allow the vertebrae to be nudged out of alignment.

Proper Posture in Lifting Heavy Load

How to reduce your risk:

  • Avoid lifting and twisting at the same time. Always lift a load straight in front of you.
  • Rest frequently if carrying out task that involves repeating the same movement for an extended period of time.

Always Lift Load with Straight Spine

Lower Back Pain Specialist

Dr Mathew Tung

Dr Mathew Tung Neurosurgeon

Book Appointment Online for Back Pain Treatment

Send us a Message

Request for Appointment