Overview: Diseases of the cervical spine
From Head-neck-joints instability conditions
Table of contents Available documents from the overview:
- Diseases of the cervical spine
- Head neck joint stabilization therapy
As can be seen at the anatomical remarks, the spinal column is a structure built in a rather complex way. It does not only contain bones and intervertebral discs, but also nerve tracts (spinal cord), arteries and even structures similar to sense organs, if one takes a look at the construction of the head joint.
Due to accidents and also signs of wear with increasing age, injuries or deformations at the spinal column can now occur, causing certain discomfort. Generally it can be said that a very high percentage of disturbances at the spinal column is to be traced back to displacements of vertebrae or intervertebral discs. This leads to irritations of the nervous system. One can imagine this easily by keeping in mind that the spinal column is a canal of 26 elements containing the spinal cord like a thick cable with many lines. If now an element jumps out of the canal, a “kink” results.
At the kink the diameter of the canal is now also smaller, and so in the kink the cable is pressed on the walls of the canal. That way the cable is squeezed, which can be intensified or also reduced by a movement of the body. Squeezed cables provoke temporary malfunctions, either they conduct electric current or they do not. That is also called a loose connection. This is similar to the spinal cord: Certain nerves are either completely squeezed and thus “deactivated” at the vertebral dislocation, or they are only temporarily squeezed, depending on how the body is moved.
As we already know, there are spinal cord segments that correspond to the vertebrae and that exercise certain functions. If now a vertebra dislocates, its corresponding spinal cord segment is irritated (“squeezed”), which can lead to different consequences depending on the segment. Also here there are overviews by chiropractors that I display for the sake of completeness:
Cervical Spine
C1 Function: Blood supply of head, pituitary gland, scalp and facial bones. Inner and middle ear. Sympathetic nerve system. Consequences: Headache, nervousness, sleeplessness, influenza encephalitis, high blood pressure, migraine, nervous breakdown, amnesia, chronic fatigue, dizziness
C2 Eyes, optic nerves, acoustic nerves, sinuses, mastoid processes, tongue, forehead Sinus disorders, allergies, strabismus, deafness, eye complaints, earache, faints, certain kinds of blindness
C3 Cheeks, auricles, facial bones, teeth, facial nerve Neuralgia, neuritis, acne or pimples, eczema
C4 Nose, lips, mouth, Eustachian tube Allergic coryza, catarrh, loss of hearing, adenoids
C5 Vocal chords, neck glands, throat Laryngitis, hoarseness, sore throat, throat quinsy
C6 Neck musculature, shoulders, tonsils stiff neck, pain in the upper arms, tonsillitis, pertussis, croup cough
C7 Thyroid gland, shoulder bursa, elbows Bursitis, colds, diseases of the thyroid gland
But this list does not mean that a suffering is always due to a dislocated vertebra. If you suffer e.g. from chronic asthma, which was diagnosed without doubt by a colleague of internal medicine, then this has very probably a different cause than a “tilted” first thoracic vertebra. But if you have e.g. pain in the forearm and the orthopaedic or neurological examinations did not result in a statement, then you should possibly ask your doctor to examine the spinal column. It is indeed possible that the cause is an already slightly displaced first thoracic vertebra and the nerve segment of the spinal cord irritated by it. It is absolutely imaginable that this cause is then rapidly removed by massages or other suitable therapies.
Of course not all problems of the spinal column can be corrected by simple means. Vertebral fractures and instabilities require a more exact diagnosis and mostly a surgical intervention.
In the menu items of this page the most important diseases of the individual spinal column sections and their therapy are briefly addressed. A comprehensive consultation and diagnosis of the individual disorders is only possible with an ambulatory presentation.
Degeneration
Beyond the age of 30, degeneration in the area of the intervertebral discs of the human cervical spine already begins.
The cervical vertebra is in no way only a hosting organ for the spinal cord and its nerves. I rather consider the cervical vertebrae to be a multifunctional organ consisting of 7 cervical vertebrae, ligaments and attachment mechanisms, intervertebral discs and multiple joints. Taking into account the balance of the head, it can quasi be referred to as a sense organ.
Of course dysfunctions, signs of wear and changes due to accidents can cause various symptoms of discomfort that do not necessarily always involve neurological dysfunctions. Mostly the practice of a specialist on the spinal column is frequented by patients who have chronic discomfort due to a more or less strong wear in the cervical spine area. The loss of humidity in the intervertebral discs causes a wear, coming along with a change in the geometry of the single joints or of the cervical spine’s posture. Generally, one speaks of an arthrosis of the cervical spine.
In former times and also nowadays these patients are often accompanied with the half-way consolatory advice: “It is a sign of wear, it is about arthrosis and you have to live with it.”
With today’s modern medicine and the technological possibilities, one does not have to live with this pain. There is absolutely an acceptable surgical possibility to restore the modified geometry of the cervical spine to a large extent and thus to improve life quality. It is not a matter of dangerous surgery at the cervical spine, as commonly believed, rather of precision surgery that normally does not take more than 1 – 2 hours and that is done without a loss of blood. Normally patients experience an improvement of life quality immediately after surgery, overall discomfort decreases considerably. In those cases the stay in hospital is about 10 days, patients are being mobilized already 12 hours after surgery. Usually a subsequent therapy of 3 weeks is also recommended.
Primarily, conditions for identifying the necessity of such a surgery are:
- patients’ chronic discomfort which resists therapy,
- a clinical examination finding created in ambulance,
- X-ray examination of the cervical spine in the usual manner,
- special functional examination of the cervical spine’s course of motions in an image converter, and finally
- an examination of the cervical spine with magnetic resonance imaging.
Especially with patients who have already undergone one or two surgeries in the area of the cervical spine with insufficient therapy success, the exact information about details should practically take place during an ambulatory presentation.