Cervical osteochondrosis is a common pathology associated with the destruction of cartilage in the joints of the cervical spine.
The signs of cervical osteochondrosis are most often manifested in the interval between 20 and 40 years, this disease explains the headache in one third of the cases.If you do not prescribe treatment on time, the disease will enter the advanced stage and will most likely cause hernia on the intervertebral disc or intervertebral convexity.
A significant problem is that due to the contradictory symptoms of cervical osteochondrosis, the diagnosis can be difficult.Some characteristics of the course of the disease, which will be discussed, may lead to the fact that the patient will go to the doctor on time, which will complicate the diagnosis of osteochondrosis of the neck and his more treatment.
Most often, acute cervical osteochondrosis develops when a person leads a sedentary lifestyle and, since at the moment, with the development of technology and science, there is a gradual transition of humanity from the main physical labor to intellectual (respectively, to the sitting lifestyle), it is not surprising that this disease is more.
In addition, signs of osteochondrosis of the neck, as well as their differences from the symptoms that accompany this disease with damage to other compartments of the spine, will be discussed in detail.
The reasons for this disease are the deposition of salts in the cervical spine during constant operation in the computer or drive of a car, metabolic disorders, inactive lifestyles and malnutrition.
The disease can also be triggered by systemic lupus erythematosus, neck injuries, hypothermia, heredity, hormonal disorders and rheumatism.
Symptoms of osteochondrosis of the neck and different groups of characters
Before moving on to a more detailed examination of the symptoms, you should familiarize yourself with a certain set of common signs of the disease.
So, the common symptoms of cervical osteochondrosis are expressed:
- Pain in the cervix and shoulder departments, in the arms and back of the head, and the painful manifestations are exacerbated even with low loads, during sneezing or cough attacks;
- Pain and crunch in the neck when you try to turn your head;
- by tingling and numbness in the limbs, burning of the back area, near and between them;
- headache that starts from the back area and spreads to the crown and temples;
- dizziness and seizure with sharp turns of the head;
- Weakness and fatigue, rapid fatigue.
The other symptoms are expressed by pulling pain in the heart and noise in his ears, the patient does not hear well, his vision may decrease.
All of these processes can occur in parallel with other clinical signs.
Given traditional neck pain, sometimes adjacent to symptoms that are not atypical of osteochondrosis that are not associated with this disease.For example, few will be compared to osteochondrosis of neck weakness, elite pain or worsening vision - and the article is aimed at saying the symptoms of this disease as accessible as possible.
In order to understand how osteochondrosis of the neck is manifested, it is necessary to divide cervical osteochondrosis syndromes into three groups, which will depend on participation in the pathology of the central nervous system.
The first group usually involves neurological characteristics considered to be complications of the disease that occur due to the influence of pathological processes on the peripheral area of the nervous system.
The second group is considered to be symptoms that can only occur under the influence of the disease on the spinal cord.
The third group includes symptoms that are associated with processes occurring during cervical osteochondrosis 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 - for pathological effects on the vessels.
Symptoms can be manifested separately or in the combination of these groups, but usually one of them is dominant.
Signs that belong to the first group of disease
What symptoms are pronounced with cervical osteochondrosis in this case?As said, this group includes pain that can occur due to the damage to the pathological process of the peripheral part of the nervous system.
The painful manifestations in the neck, the radicolitis of the cervical region and laterals are also symptoms of this group, which is also characterized by chest, muscles and joint pain.
Neck pain is the first symptom of osteochondrosis of the neck and manifests itself in almost all patients.Most often it starts in the morning and intensifies when one turns, it provokes laughter, coughing, sneezing, unsuccessful neck turn.The pain is usually punctured, stupid, sometimes shooting, localized inside the neck, but occasionally spreads to the shoulder area.
Such pain can occur periodically or lasting constant, they are different in duration and strength.
Sometimes the painful manifestations are acute, but they are differently expressed by them can be felt by the "current stroke" and at the same time someone experiences pain in firing, which is being punctured, everything individually.
The neck muscles can be tense and then it becomes difficult to breathe.In addition, during the acute period of osteochondrosis of the neck, the patient takes certain poses - holding his head, tilting him forward and on the side and it is very difficult for him to rotate with her during the bastards.
Frequent symptoms are noise phenomena, they can occur when trying to turn their heads, expressed by crunching and cracking.This indicates the neglect of the disease.
Sometimes people believe that the disease is triggered by the wrong position in dream, hypothermia, acute turns of the head and the load on the neck.
Factors and signs accompanying the symptoms of the first group
The factors listed above can really cause pain, but more often they only aggravate existing symptoms of the disease without being the main causes of osteochondrosis of the cervical spine.
The pain and shots of the cervix are not all symptoms of this group, except for them, different types of radiculitis of the neck and shoulder, which led to the painful manifestations of the upper cervical area and the back of the head.
The pain is exacerbated during the rotation of the head, sometimes it even goes to the shoulder belt and arms, it causes tension in the muscles, which is associated with nerve roots.Most often, they suffer in the sixth and seventh departments due to the pressure of the vertebrae.The pathology of the sixth department leads to pain in the forearm and thumb, the seventh - to painful manifestations in the middle finger.Rare on this disease, damage to the eighth department is fraught with the spread of pain to the little finger.
With the lesions of the upper vertebrae and cervical discs, the back nerve is included in the painful processes, which is fraught with new pain that is permanent.Sometimes these pain gets more severe and then the sensitivity of the nape is lost, you can even find a point of pain that looks like a small sealant.
As the changes begin in the neck, due to impaired blood supply, cervical vegetative formations may suffer.The symptom as burning pain is joined, which becomes more severe during physical and emotional stress or when the weather changes.In addition, the color of the hands and hands changes, swelling occurs, the skin becomes pale and thinned, it becomes cold.Also, the disappearance of sensitivity to touch or vice versa, its strengthening.Tachycardia joins, heart pain, students change.
Additional signs related to the first group
Osteochondrosis of the neck is also manifested by discomfort in the hands (usually this happens at night).This is called nightly dying, usually the diagnosis is made after forty years to those whose lifestyle is associated with different physical activity.
The additional signs of the first group are the tingling and tingling of the bones, the pain and the discomfort in the hands, and as attacks more often occur at night, sleep is disturbed for them.
The symptoms of this group reach their peak when severe degenerative changes in the neck and vertebrae occur, indicating pathologies of the autonomous 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 onset of curves, as frequent satellites of osteochondrosis are muscle cramps occurring during the slopes of the head and the neck rotation.At the same time, one cannot turn their head normally due to increased pain in the back of the head or shoulders.
Finger pain and pale skin are joined if the vessels are pulled out, the blood supply is disturbed or the pulse in the radial artery is weakened.
Another complication is the periastatrite, dangerous from the shoulder, which occurs due to a disorder of the shoulder and spatular sections with the central nervous system.As a result, dystrophic changes, over time, increase only.
The main problem is that such pathologies have been secretly found for a long time and the patient may not notice them.
The main symptoms are in smooth pain in the joints, which manifest themselves, as already noted at night.Painful places can be felt and the abduction of the hands on the side causes acute pain.
As the patient will try not to disturb the limb so that he does not experience pain again, due to inaction in the joints, the effect of a "frozen arm" can be formed and if the treatment does not start in time, one will not be able to raise his hand above the horizontal level.
What are the signs of the second group of this disease?
Symptoms of cervical osteochondrosis, which occur due to pathologies of the spinal cord, are symptoms of the second group.Symptoms can lead to compression produced by a pulpal core, which falls out of the disc due to its softening or due to injury to the spinal cord.
Often weakness in the limbs joins such symptoms, there is a decrease in the hands, but it, on the contrary, increases in the legs, but weakening is not observed.Occasionally, painless muscle seizures develop (usually this happens after forty years, rarely after fifty -five and almost never in youth).Such complications have been found in those people who have a history of atherosclerosis or arrhythmias.
The spinal cord (with disk problems between the fifth and sixth vertebrae) can withstand a change called myelopathy.Usually, this pathology occurs due to spinal cord injuries or surge that touches the muscles of the shoulder, but sometimes stress or alcohol poisoning can be the root cause.
There are also clinical manifestations that continue without raising the temperature or loss of sensitivity, which is why one ceases to feel an annoying effect that can somehow on the skin of the neck, arms and chest.In addition, broken or sick pain may occur, the patient's hands are worn.
Osteochondrosis of the cervical vertebra is also characterized by the "semiconductor disorders" that occurs when spinal cord parts are poorly provided with blood.As a result, when you walk or stand, your legs are very tired.Sometimes the brushes are numb, from time to time - legs, discomfort can appear in them.Coordination is also possible, especially if the patient closes his eyes.
Despite the certain incidence of these signs, they will not deprive the patient with the ability to work 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 occur due to insufficient blood flow to the system, which is responsible for ensuring that blood in sufficient quantities and in time falls into the spinal cord.This system is formed by the main vessels such as spinal arteries.
What syndromes do this group of symptoms characterize?
Most commonly, there is a hypothalamic syndrome in osteochondrosis of the cervical spine, its symptoms are mood instability, irritability and high fatigue, anxiety, resentment, sleep disorders (the patient does not fall asleep well, resurrects the feeling of not sleeping).In addition, the possibility of concentration is lost, memory problems begin, and there is a discomfort in everything.Sometimes longing, anger, hassle -free fear can join.The skin becomes pale, the limbs are cold, the patient increases sweating, the pressure often increases, but appetite and sexual desire are reduced.
The drop syndrome is characterized by attacks of seamless fainting (sometimes with loss of consciousness, sometimes without it), the reason for this is vascular spasms.Consciousness returns almost immediately if the patient lays and lowers his head.After the weakness, a feeling of collapse can occur, headache joins.
The signs of vestibular barrel syndrome at the onset of the disease are dizziness, which occurs due to insufficient blood supply, nausea and vomiting attacks that are walking when walking.
Symptoms of Cochlear Barrel Syndrome and tinnitus, usually on one side, can reduce hearing, hollow.Usually this syndrome follows from the previous one, but its independent manifestation is also possible.It is difficult to understand the diagnosis of cervical osteochondrosis with these signs.
With Pharyngeon-Minut syndrome, there is a feeling that there is a foreign object in the throat, other signs and itching in the throat, the voice becomes deaf, the larynx of the wizards and the pain appears in it and the throat.The patient gets tired during a conversation, he needs a vacation, and it is also difficult to swallow thick foods, and esophagus spasms are observed.Short -term rest can retain these manifestations.
Symptoms of visual disorders are expressed by disorders - fog in front of the eyes, reducing vision.
What is the danger of the disease?
If you do not diagnose adequate treatment in time when signs of osteochondrosis of the cervical spine occur, then radiculopathy may begin, which affects nerve roots and the patient loses mobility, but the greatest danger is to compress the spinal cord, which can lead to death.
With osteochondrosis of the neck, the most dangerous form of this disease, cerebral circulation can be impaired, which is why migraines, hypertension, vegetation of dystonia, pathology of cardiovascular and respiratory systems, vision problems, hearing and coordination will begin.The leaked forms of the disease lead to the spinal artery syndrome, which supplies blood to the elongated brain and cerebral brain, and if the artery squeezes, then the ischemia of the brain or spinal cord may begin, such manifestations can cause a spinal stroke.
Do not leave such a dangerous disease as uterine osteochondrosis without attention, as the consequences can affect the ability to work and lifestyle as a whole and if the first symptoms occur, you should seek the help of a specialist immediately.How to treat osteochondrosis of the cervical spine, the attending physician decides after a thorough examination.