What complications can be caused by cervical spondylosis?
1.Swallowing disorder
There is a feeling of obstruction when swallowing, a foreign body feeling in the esophagus, and a few people have nausea, vomiting, hoarseness, dry cough, chest tightness and other symptoms. This is caused by the stenosis of the esophagus due to the direct compression of the back wall of the esophagus by the front edge of the cervical spine, or it may be caused by the irritation of the soft tissues around the esophagus due to the rapid formation of bone spurs.
2.Visual impairment
It is manifested as loss of vision, eye swelling and pain, photophobia, tearing, unequal pupil size, and even reduced visual field and sharp loss of vision, and blindness may occur in individual patients. This is related to the ischemic lesion of the visual center of the occipital lobe of the brain caused by autonomic nerve disorder and insufficient blood supply to the vertebrobasilar artery due to cervical spondylosis.
3.Cervical heart syndrome
It is easily misdiagnosed as coronary artery disease and is characterized by pain in the precordial region, chest tightness, arrhythmia (such as premature beats) and ST-segment changes in the electrocardiogram. This is caused by the stimulation and compression of the nerve roots in the back of the neck by the cervical spine spurs.
4. Hypertensive cervical spondylosis
It can cause an increase or decrease in blood pressure, with the increase in blood pressure being the most common, which is called “cervical hypertension”. Since cervical spondylosis and hypertension are both common diseases of middle-aged and elderly people, they often coexist.
5. Chest pain
The pain is slow-onset and persistent unilateral pain in the pectoralis major muscle and breast, with pressure pain in the pectoralis major muscle during examination. This is related to the compression of the cervical 6 and 7 nerve roots by the cervical spine spurs.
6.Lower limb paralysis
Early manifestation is numbness, pain and limp in the lower limbs, and some patients have a feeling like stepping on cotton when walking. Individual patients may also have defecation and urination disorders, such as frequent urination, urgent urination, poor urination or incontinence. This is because the lateral bundle of vertebrae is stimulated or compressed by the cervical spur, resulting in lower limb movement and sensory impairment.
7.Sudden collapse
Sudden collapse often occurs when the body loses support due to sudden head twisting while standing or walking, and the patient can wake up soon after collapse, without any impairment of consciousness or sequelae. Such patients can be accompanied by dizziness, nausea, vomiting, sweating and other symptoms of plant nerve dysfunction. This is due to a temporary shortage of blood supply to the brain caused by the impaired blood supply to the basilar artery due to the compression of the vertebral artery by proliferative changes in the cervical spine.
Why does cervical spondylosis cause hypertension?
In order to avoid hypertension caused by cervical spondylosis, in life as a healthy person, you should actively correct the bad posture in life, for example, when carrying out activities such as watching TV, playing cards and chess, pay attention to the sitting posture, do not take too long, and it is better to move more times in between to avoid causing cervical spondylosis. Do not lie in bed for a long time to read or lie down to watch TV, so as not to make the cervical spine in a long-term distorted state, and cause cervical spondylosis.
In addition, pay attention to the usual neck warmth, when going out in winter should wear a scarf to prevent the neck from cold. Do not blow directly under the electric fan or air conditioner in summer. Do not rinse with cold water immediately after sweating.
Can cervical spondylosis cause high blood pressure?
Cervical spondylosis can cause an increase or decrease in blood pressure, with the increase in blood pressure being the most common, called “cervical hypertension”. Because both cervical spondylosis and hypertension are common in middle-aged and elderly people, they often coexist.
Cervical spondylosis can cause hypertension because the sympathetic ganglion on the neck is attached to the transverse process of the cervical spine, or because of sterile inflammation caused by cervical spine misalignment injury, or because the transverse process is displaced by cervical spine misalignment, which can cause sympathetic excitation and cerebral vascular spasm and increase blood pressure. If such stimulation persists, it will secondary affect the function of the diastolic center of the cerebral blood vessels and develop into systemic small artery spasm, causing a continuous increase in blood pressure.
Cervical spondylosis can cause not only high blood pressure, but also headache, hand numbness or neck pain, which is related to the stimulation of sympathetic nerves in the neck. For the treatment of cervical spondylosis, it is important to choose the right treatment method.