What is “cervical spondylosis” in children?

  When it comes to cervical spondylosis, people tend to associate it with the middle-aged and the elderly, but it is not expected that cervical spondylosis has now quietly aimed at children.  The onset of “children’s cervical spondylosis” is mainly due to study tension, long-term ambulation reading, writing, resulting in neck and shoulder muscle fatigue. In addition, poor posture when ambulating and carrying a heavy schoolbag every day can also lead to inflammatory edema in the intervertebral space, which can also cause cervical disc protrusion. Some children read and write for a long time to one side, or lying in bed watching TV, listening to tapes always listen with one ear, these long-term repeated single posture will accelerate the metamorphosis of the cervical spine. Other children often throw their necks, such as playing hula hoops, can also cause cervical spine joint dislocation. “Cervical spondylosis can cause discomfort in children, such as neck and shoulder pain, upper arm numbness, dizziness and headache, poor memory, and even vertigo and nausea and vomiting. Cervical spondylosis in children” is usually a sudden attack, starting with neck pain and more serious, often unable to turn, symptoms are very similar to sprains, in the past, because parents do not know about cervical spondylosis, so often lead to delayed treatment of children.  Although the same is suffering from cervical spondylosis, but “children’s cervical spondylosis” and adult cervical spondylosis have a great difference.  1, adult cervical spondylosis is mostly caused by intervertebral disc degeneration and osteophytes, while “children’s cervical spondylosis” is mostly caused by trauma, poor learning posture, weakness, overweight school bags and other causes of cervical spine joint misalignment, if these small joint misalignments are not corrected, it is easy to produce cervical spine lesions. Children suffering from cervical spondylosis have poor concentration and memory loss in mild cases, and in severe cases, they have symptoms such as dizziness, headache, pseudomyopia, restless sleep, drowsiness in class, frequent erratic episodes, and loss of appetite.  2, the onset of adult cervical spondylosis is from neck pain to neck stiffness, and then to the onset, which takes a longer time; while “children’s cervical spondylosis” is generally sudden onset, starting with neck pain and more powerful, often unable to turn, the symptoms are very similar to sprains, but the examination will find that there are pressure points to touch, and it will hurt when turning the neck.  3, adult cervical spondylosis treatment is a complex, long process, while “children’s cervical spondylosis” is a one-time, generally 2 to 3 times treatment can be cured.  Because the anatomy and physiology of the cervical spine is very complex, parents should not deal with the above situation on their own, and should go to the hospital rehabilitation or orthopedics department to diagnose clearly and exclude contraindications to manipulation (tuberculosis, tumors, fractures and dislocations if there is a history of trauma), and only when it is confirmed that the small joints of the cervical spine are misaligned or there is mild soft tissue strain next to the vertebrae, we can apply rehabilitation treatment to treat it. We can correct the misalignment of the small joints of the cervical vertebrae by applying manual repositioning, followed by infrared irradiation and electrical stimulation. In addition, we will teach children and parents some simple training methods for children to continue training at home, such as: using hot water bags to cover the affected area, letting children slowly turn their heads, and a kind of rolling work: sitting on the carpet, holding the knees with both hands, rolling back and forth, which can massage and pull the spine, and can also correct the initial small misalignment of the spine.  For children’s cervical spine problems, prevention is advocated, we must pay attention to the child can not let long hours of reading, doing homework, their bad posture should be corrected, and urge children to develop good habits of life and learning: children write for half an hour, we must remind them to lift the head, stretch the body; do not let children lie in bed reading, watching TV; also forbid children to watch TV, play computer for a long time; at the same time to supervise the child exercise. At the same time, we should pay attention to supervise the child exercise, because strengthening exercise can prevent cervical spondylosis, such as jumping rope, inversion, etc., especially inversion, can make the long-term downward force of the cervical spine, relaxation in the opposite direction, the cervical joint ligaments can be relaxed, get sufficient rest. In addition, the child’s school bag should not be too heavy. Usually should also strengthen the exercise, especially to often move the neck.