Cervical osteochondosis is a common pathology associated with the destruction of cartilage in the joints of the cervical column.
The signs of cervical osteochondosis are most often manifested in the meantime between 20 and 40 years, this disease explains headaches in a third of the cases.If you do not prescribe a treatment over time, the disease will go to the advanced stage and, most likely, will cause an herniated of the intervertebral disc or the intervertebral projection.
An important problem is that due to the contradictory symptoms of cervical osteochondosis, a diagnosis can be difficult.Certain characteristics of the course of the disease, which will be discussed more, can lead to the fact that the patient will go to the doctor in a timely manner, which will complicate the diagnosis of the osteochondosis of the neck and his subsequent treatment.
Most often, acute cervical osteochondosis is developing when a person leads a sedentary lifestyle, and as at present, with the development of technology and science, there is a progressive transition from humanity of mainly physical work to the intellectual (respectively, a seated lifestyle), it is not surprising that this disease is widely spread today.
In addition, signs of neck osteochondosis, as well as their differences in relation to the symptoms that accompany this disease with damage to other spine services, will be examined in detail.
The causes of this disease are the deposit of salts in the cervical column during constant work on the computer or driving a car, metabolic disorders, inactive lifestyle and malnutrition.
The disease can also be caused by systemic lupus erythematosus, neck injuries, hypothermia, heredity, hormonal disorders and rheumatism.
Symptoms of neck osteochondrosis and different groups of signs
Before moving to a more detailed consideration of the symptoms, you must familiarize yourself with a certain set of general signs of the disease.
Thus, the general symptoms of cervical osteochondosis are expressed:
- Pain in cervical services and shoulders, in the hands and back of the head, and painful manifestations are improved even with weak loads, during sneezing or cough attacks;
- pain and bite into the neck when you try to turn your head;
- with numbness and tingling in the limbs, a burn in the rear area, near the shoulder blades and between them;
- The headaches that start from the occipital region and spread to the crown and the temples;
- Stunning and fainting of acute turns of the head;
- weakness and fatigue, fast fatigue.
The remaining symptoms are expressed by pulling pain in the heart and noise in his ears, the patient does not hear well, his vision can decrease.
All of these processes can occur in parallel with other clinical signs.
Given the traditional pain in the neck, sometimes adjacent to symptoms that are not atypical of osteochondrosis which are not associated with this disease.For example, few will compare to osteochondrosis of neck weakness in the legs, elite pain or worsening vision - and the article aims to say that the symptoms of this disease as accessible as possible.
To understand how the osteochondrosis of the neck manifests, it is necessary to divide the syndromes of cervical osteochondosis into three groups, which will depend on the involvement in the pathology of the central nervous system.
The first group generally includes neurological characteristics considered as complications of the disease that occur due to the influence of pathological processes on the peripheral region of the nervous system.
The second group is considered symptoms, which can only manifest itself under the influence of the disease on the spinal cord.
The third group includes symptoms associated with processes that occur during cervical osteochondosis in the brain.
In short, we can say this: the first group includes signs responsible for sick manifestations, the second - for motor disorders, the third - pathological effects on ships.
Symptoms can manifest itself separately or in the combination of these groups, but generally one of them is dominant.
Signs that belong to the first group of the disease
What symptoms are pronounced with cervical osteochondrosis in this case?As said, this group includes pain, which can manifest itself due to the defeat of the pathological process of the peripheral section of the nervous system.
Painful manifestations in the neck, the radicolitis of the cervical region and the laterals are also symptoms of this group, which is also characterized by pain in the chest, in muscles and joints.
Pain in the neck is the first symptom of neck osteochondrosis, and it manifests in almost all patients.Most often begins in the morning and intensifies when a person turns, it provokes laughter, cough, sneezing, an unsuccessful turn of the neck.Pain is generally a stupid borehole, sometimes shots, located inside the neck, but sometimes spreads to the shoulder region.
Such pain can occur periodically or constantly hard, they are different in duration and strength.
Sometimes the painful manifestations are clear, but they are expressed differently, they can be felt by the "current blow", and at the same time that someone feels a shooting pain that is piercing, individually.
The neck muscles can be stretched, then it becomes difficult to breathe.In addition, during the acute period of osteochondrosis of the neck, the patient takes certain poses - holds his head, giving her forward and on the side, and it is very difficult for him to turn with her during the bastards.
Frequent symptoms are noise phenomena, they can occur when they try to turn their heads, expressed by the crunch and crackling.This is what indicates the negligence of the disease.
Sometimes people believe that the disease is triggered by bad position in a dream, hypothermia, net turns of the head and the load on the neck.
Factors and signs that accompany the symptoms of the first group
The factors listed above can really cause pain, but more often than not, they aggravate the existing symptoms of the disease, not the main causes of osteochondrosis of the cervical column.
Cervical pains and shots are not all the symptoms of this group, with the exception of them, different types of radiculitis of the neck and the shoulder region, which led to the painful manifestations of the upper cervical region and the back of the head.
The pain intensifies during the rotation of the head, sometimes it even goes to the belt and the arms of the shoulder, it causes tension in the muscles associated with the nerve roots.Most often, they suffer in the sixth and seventh departments due to the pressing of the vertebrae.The pathology of the sixth department leads to pain in the forearm and the thumb, the seventh - to painful demonstrations in the middle finger.Rare for this disease, damage to the eighth department are heavy from the spread of pain to the little finger.
With lesions of the upper vertebrae and cervical discs, the occipital nerve is included in the painful processes, which is heavy with new constant pain.Sometimes these pains become stronger, then the sensitivity of the neck is lost, you can even find a point of pain that looks like a small seal.
Since changes begin on the neck, due to the supply of altered blood, cervical vegetative formations can suffer from it.The symptom as burning pain is attached, which becomes stronger during physical and emotional stress or when changing weather conditions.In addition, the color of the hands and hands change, swelling appears, the skin becomes pale and thin, becoming cold.In addition, the disappearance of the sensitivity to the touch, or vice versa, its strengthening.Tachycardia joins, pain in the heart, students change.
Additional signs relating to the first group
The osteochondrosis of the neck also manifests itself by discomfort in the hands (this generally occurs at night).This is called night matrices, generally the diagnosis is made after forty years with those whose lifestyle is associated with various physical activities.
The additional signs of the first group are tingling and numbness of bones, pain and discomfort in their hands, and as attacks occur more often at night, a dream is disturbed because of them.
The symptoms of this group reach its peak when strong degenerative changes occur in the neck and vertebrae, which indicates the pathologies of the autonomic nervous system.This is due to the fact that the vegetative nodes located too close to the spine are not sufficiently supplied with blood.
This disease sometimes contributes to the occurrence of twisted, as frequent osteochondosis satellites are muscle cramps occurring during the heads of the head and the rotation of the neck.At the same time, a person cannot turn their head normally due to the growing pain on the back of the head or shoulder stumps.
The pain in the fingers and the pallor of the skin join if the vessels are pressed, that the blood supply is disturbed or if the pulse in the radial artery is weakened.
Another complication is the periptritis wrapped in the shoulder, which occurs due to a violation of the binding of the shoulder and the spatial sections with the central nervous system.Consequently - the dystrophic changes, over time do not increase.
The main problem is that such pathologies occur secretly for a long time and that the patient does not notice it.
The main symptoms are joint pain without cause, which are manifested, as already indicated, at night.Painful places can be felt and the removal of the hands on the side causes strong pain.
Since the patient will try not to disturb the limb so as not to feel pain again, due to inactivity in the joints, the effect of a "frozen shoulder" can form, and if the treatment does not start over time, a person will not be able to raise their hand over the horizontal level.
What are the signs of the second group of this disease?
Symptoms of cervical osteochondosis that occur due to spinal cord pathologies are the symptoms of the second group.Symptoms can cause compression produced by a pulpose nucleus that falls from the disc due to its softening or due to the wound of the spinal cord.
Often, the weakness of the limbs joins such symptoms, a reduced muscle tone is felt in the hands, but it is on the contrary, but the weight loss is not observed.Sometimes, painless muscle grunts are developing (usually this happens after forty years, less often after fifty-five, and almost never in young people).Similar complications are found in people who have an anamnesis of atherosclerosis or arrhythmias.
The spinal cord (with problems with the disc between fifth and sixth vertebra) can bear the change called myelopathy.As a rule, this pathology occurs due to injuries of the spine or overvoltage, which has touched the shoulder muscles, but sometimes stress or poisoning to alcohol can be the deep cause.
There are also such clinical manifestations which take place without increasing the temperature or the loss of sensitivity, which is why a person ceases to feel a boring effect which can in any way on the skin of the neck, arms and chest.In addition, broken or painful pain can occur, the patient's hands are carrying.
Osteochondrosis of the cervical vertebra is also characterized by the "syndrome of semiconductor disorders" which occurs when the parts of the spinal cord are poorly supplied with blood.As a result, on the move or standing up, the legs are very tired.Sometimes the brushes are numb, sometimes - the feet, the discomfort can appear there.Coordination is also possible, especially if the patient closes his eyes.
Despite certain frequency of the manifestation of these signs, they will not deprive the patient with the possibility of working, and a person will be able to lead a normal lifestyle.
What signs belong to the third group of this disease?
The symptoms and signs of the third group relate to the brain manifestations of the disease which appear due to an insufficient blood flow in the system, which is responsible for ensuring that the blood in sufficient quantities and in time falls into the compartments of the spinal cord.This system is formed from main ships as vertebral arteries.
What syndromes characterize this group of symptoms?
Hypotalamic syndrome in osteochondrosis of the cervical column is most often found, its symptoms are the instability of mood, irritability and high fatigue, anxiety, resentment, sleep disorder (the patient does not fall asleep well, increases with the feeling that he did not sleep).In addition, the possibility of concentrating is lost, the memory problems begin and the discomfort is felt in everything.Sometimes desire, anger, fear without cause, anxiety can join.The skin becomes pale, the limbs are cold, the patient increases perspiration, pressure often increases, but appetite and sexual desire are reduced.
DROPS syndrome is characterized by attacks of unanswered fainting (sometimes with a loss of consciousness, sometimes without it), the reason is vascular cramps.Consciousness comes up almost immediately if the patient arises and lowers his head.After weakness, a feeling of breakdown can occur, headaches join.
The signs of a barrel vestibular syndrome at the start of the disease are dizziness, which seem due to insufficient blood supply, nausea and vomiting attacks, narcotics during walking.
Symptoms of syndrome and noise cochlear syndrome in the ears, usually on one side, can decrease hearing, hollow.Usually, this syndrome stems from the previous one, but its independent event is also possible.It is difficult to understand the diagnosis of cervical osteochondrosis with these signs.
With a pharyngeon-minuscule syndrome, there is a feeling that there is a foreign object in the throat, other set signs and itching in the throat, the voice becomes deaf, the larynx of the wizards, and the pain arrives there.The patient is tired during a conversation, he needs a vacation, moreover, it is difficult to swallow thick foods, esophagus spasms are observed.A short -term rest can save these manifestations.
The symptoms of visual disorders are expressed by disorders - fog under the eyes, a decrease in vision.
What is the danger of the disease?
If you do not diagnose adequate treatment in time, when the signs of osteochondrosis of the cervical column appear, then radiculopathy can begin, in which the nerve roots are affected and the patient loses mobility, but the greatest danger is to compress the spinal cord, which can cause death.
With neck osteochondosis, the most dangerous form of this disease, brain circulation can be disturbed, because of which migraines, hypertension, vegetable dystonia, the pathology of cardiovascular and respiratory systems, vision problems, hearing and coordination begin.Forms of disease leads to the vertebral artery syndrome, which provides blood from the oblong brain and the cerebellum, and if the artery is pressed, then the ischemia of the brain or spinal cord can begin, such manifestations can cause a stroke.
Do not leave an illness as dangerous as cervical osteochondosis without attention, because the consequences can affect the capacity for work and lifestyle in general, and if the first symptoms appear, you should immediately ask for the help of a specialist.How to treat osteochondrosis in the cervical column, the attending physician decides after an in -depth examination.