1.What is cervical spondylosis?
Cervical spondylosis, also known as cervical spine syndrome, is a clinical syndrome in which degenerative degeneration of the cervical disc, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the cervical spine and neck injury cause cervical spine osteophytes or disc prolapse and ligament thickening, stimulating or compressing the cervical spinal cord, cervical nerves and blood vessels and producing a series of symptoms. Simply put, cervical spondylosis is the degeneration and proliferation of the cervical spine, and the lesion compresses the blood vessels, nerves and spinal cord around the cervical spine resulting in a large number of symptoms. It is not a simple disease, but a series of symptoms collectively oh.
2.What are the causes and mechanisms of cervical spondylosis?
Cervical spondylosis is a disorder based on degenerative pathological changes and has many causes, but there are four causes, including degenerative changes of the cervical spine (cervical hyperplasia, disc herniation, etc.), chronic strain (the most common cause such as low head work, etc.), developmental cervical spinal stenosis (mostly congenital), and congenital malformations of the cervical spine (relatively rare, such as butterfly spine, and spine, etc.).
The first two are the main causes, due to long-term cervical spine strain, osteophytes, or disc prolapse, ligament thickening, resulting in cervical spinal cord, nerve roots or vertebral artery compression, manifested as cervical disc degeneration itself and its secondary series of pathological changes, such as vertebral joint instability, loosening; nucleus pulposus protrusion or prolapse; bone spur formation; ligament hypertrophy and secondary spinal stenosis, etc., stimulating or compressing the adjacent nerve roots, spinal cord, vertebral artery, etc. vertebral artery and cervical sympathetic nerve and other tissues, causing a series of symptoms and signs.
3.What are the common manifestations of cervical spondylosis?
According to the clinical manifestations, cervical spondylosis is usually divided into six categories, namely cervical cervical spondylosis, nerve root type, spinal cord type, vertebral artery type, sympathetic nerve type and mixed cervical spondylosis. Clinically, four of these cervical spondylosis types are multifocal.
Nerve root type The highest incidence is manifested by neuralgia, sensory disturbance, numbness, abnormal sensation and inflexibility of movement in the area corresponding to the affected nerve root. It can be aggravated by tilting the head, coughing and sneezing. The earlier you seek medical attention, the better the outcome, and most patients can be partially relieved without surgery.
Spinal cord type About 10- 15% of patients have this type. When a herniated disc, osteophytes, or thickened or ossified ligaments connecting the bones and joints occur, the spinal cord and blood vessels can be compressed, and even ischemia or necrosis of the spinal cord can occur. In the early stage, the numbness of lower limbs is unilateral or bilateral, and later it develops into difficulty in walking and urinary and fecal dysfunction or even paralysis.
Sympathetic nerve type accounts for about 5%. Sympathetic nerve compression in the neck is a symptom. Because of its wide distribution, it can cause symptoms in many organs and systems. Symptoms include head symptoms: dizziness, headache, posterior neck pain; eye symptoms: droopy eyelids, blurred vision, and even blindness; heart symptoms: rapid or slowed heartbeat, heart pain; peripheral symptoms: numbness or pain in the limbs, head, neck, and face; others: tinnitus, deafness, etc.
Vertebral artery type accounts for about 2%. It is a series of symptoms caused by the dysfunction of the vertebral artery due to external compression or stimulation and insufficient blood supply to the brain. Early symptoms are usually not obvious, but when aggravated to a certain degree, it may appear as a sudden onset in a special position, as long as the neck is turned in a certain direction, vertigo will appear immediately, and even feel dizzy. Sometimes it is accompanied by headache, nausea and vomiting, tinnitus and blurred vision.
4.How is cervical spondylosis treated?
Most cervical spondylosis can be treated by physiotherapy, massage and other non-surgical methods to relieve the symptoms, while for some cervical spondylosis such as spinal cord cervical spondylosis is not effective, this type of cervical spondylosis may require surgery, other than the correct lifestyle and work posture is also a very important part of the treatment.
5.How effective is traction therapy for cervical spondylosis?
Cervical spine traction is the main symptom relief tool for cervical spondylosis. Because effective traction can relieve the compression of nerves, blood vessels and spinal cord, and quickly relieve the symptoms of cervical spondylosis. Specifically, cervical traction mainly relieves muscle spasm in the neck, relieves pain symptoms, enlarges the vertebral space and intervertebral foramen, facilitates the resetting of the nucleus pulposus and fibrous ring tissue that have been protruded, relieves and relieves nerve root compression and stimulation, promotes the absorption of nerve root edema, relieves the compression of vertebral artery, promotes blood circulation, facilitates local bruising and swelling and the regression of hyperplasia, loosens the adherent joint capsule, improves and restores the hook vertebral joint, and adjusts the small joint misalignment and vertebral joint dislocation. It can adjust the small joint misalignment and vertebral slippage, adjust and restore the internal and external balance of the cervical spine that has been destroyed, and restore the normal function of the cervical spine. It is suitable for patients with mild cervical spondylosis, frequent pillow, and change in the physiological curvature of the cervical spine.
6.What are the precautions for cervical spine traction?
(1) Traction angle: Generally speaking, the neck is tilted forward from the longitudinal axis of the trunk by about 10°~30° (upper cervical segment, middle cervical segment, lower cervical segment), avoiding over-extension (except for herniated disc).
(2) Traction weight: In principle, it is appropriate for the patient to tolerate, and different traction weights are selected according to different ages, generally not exceeding 15 kg.
(3) Traction time: generally 1-2 times a day, about 30 minutes per traction, depending on the patient’s physical condition.
(4) Traction mode: generally use sitting intermittent traction, for the old and frail usually use horizontal intermittent traction. Traction weight can start from 3~4 kg, and small weight traction for 7 days is a course of treatment.
Cervical spine traction requires more stringent operation methods, please carry out under the guidance of a doctor.
7.Can I have massage for cervical spondylosis?
Cervical spine massage is a treatment method to improve blood circulation, remove inflammatory media and improve immune activity by using appropriate massage techniques to stimulate specific parts of the human body, so as to prevent cervical spondylosis or promote the rehabilitation of the patient’s cervical spine. In the conservative treatment of cervical spondylosis, cervical spine massage is a very important treatment method. Massage techniques can be divided into two categories: relaxation techniques and adjustment techniques, clinical attention should be paid to the coordinated use of the two types of techniques, do not blindly emphasize the efficacy of adjustment techniques, resulting in accidents. The disease is prone to recurrence, so it can be combined with self-tui-na care and functional exercise of the neck to reduce the recurrence rate. The efficacy of massage is obvious for cervical and nerve root cervical spondylosis, the course of treatment can be longer for vertebral artery type, and surgery should be considered for spinal cord type cervical spondylosis when clinical treatment is not effective and accompanied by progressive aggravation. Extra attention should be paid to the qualification of the masseur when carrying out massage, to the hospital or regular clinic for treatment, do not trust the masseur on the street, if improper treatment, serious paralysis may result.
8, the prevention of cervical spondylosis 3 top tips
(1) choose the right pillow pillow height should be the standard of personal body physique, the principle is, sleep on the pillow to maintain the normal curve of the cervical spine, will not make the neck distortion. Pillow with moderate softness, slightly elastic is good. Pillow is too hard, the head and neck and pillow contact with the relative pressure increases, will cause head discomfort; pillow is too soft, it is difficult to maintain the normal height, so that the head and neck do not get some support and fatigue.
(2) good sleeping posture and sleep environment
Sleeping should be mainly supine, side lying, do not sleep on your back, otherwise it is easy to cause excessive cervical joint torsion and neck muscle fatigue. Sleep should also pillow the neck on the pillow, do not dangle.
Sleep covered not only to cover the body, but also to cover the neck; summer do not want to be cool for a moment and the back of the neck is facing the fan or air conditioning blowing directly, so as not to catch a cold neck caused by cervical muscle spasm.
(3) Exercise of the muscles of the back of the neck
The muscles of the back of the neck are the key to keeping the cervical spine stable, so to protect the cervical spine, the key is to exercise the muscles of the back of the neck.
How do you do it specifically?
It is best to set aside a certain amount of time every day for exercise, with particular attention to strengthening the muscles of the neck and shoulder exercise, swimming, kite flying is more effective in preventing cervical spondylosis. Office workers who sit in front of the computer for a long time should also regularly raise their heads and move their necks, do shoulder shrugging and chest expansion exercises to prevent chronic strain on the cervical muscles and the occurrence of cervical spondylosis.