Connected Chiropractic Offers Relieving Care for Post-Surgical Neck Pain
Neck pain anytime is not welcome. Neck pain after neck surgery is particularly unwelcome…by the patient and the treating physician! Gentle manual treatment of post-surgical neck pain and any adjacent-to-the-surgical-level-segment spinal pain issues at Connected Chiropractic helps many Elgin neck pain sufferers find neck pain relief.
DDD
Degenerative disc disease (DDD) - the wear and tear of one or more spinal discs – shows itself as low back pain and neck and arm pain. 40% of people over age 40 have degenerative disc disease while 80% of those over 80 years of age have it. 10% to 20% of people with disc degeneration in the lumbar spine and up to 30% of those with disc degeneration in the cervical spine will not get relief from non-surgical treatments. (1) Degenerative disc disease is reported as starting in the second decade of life. (2) The artificial disc replacement has existed for a while. An early analysis of its use and efficacy stated that about 5% of DDD patients were appropriate for it. Further, the review reported that lumbar artificial disc replacement was 79% better than lumbar spine fusion with a major complication rate of 0% to 13% per implanted device. The rate of major complications at 2 years post-surgery went from 0% to 8.1% per implant. Adjacent segment disease was reported to be 2% in an 11-year-follow-up study, but not definitive in the clinical trial data. (1) Connected Chiropractic finds that post-surgical neck pain patients experiencing such adjacent segment disease pursue our Elgin chiropractic care not uncommonly.
ADJACENT SEGMENT DISEASE AFTER CERVICAL SPINE SURGERY
Spine literature has recently published studies regarding the concern conveyed in the study above about adjacent segment disease, degenerative changes at spinal segments immediately next to a spinal fusion or disc implant area. The cause for such pain is explained as potentially resulting from altered stresses on the adjoining levels after such procedures. In an article geared toward primary care practitioners who care for post-surgical patients with spinal pain, one such patient who presently had neck pain and cervical arm pain radiculopathy after a history of experiencing anterior cervical disectomy and spinal fusion surgery 30 years ago for DDD. This patient underwent 34 sessions of chiropractic care – a combination of cervical manipulation, flexion distraction decompression, soft-tissue mobilization and therapeutic ultrasound – reported relief. (3) Connected Chiropractic uses flexion distraction decompression procedures to gently address post-surgical Elgin neck pain.
POST-CERVICAL SPINE SURGERY NECK PAIN
Researchers wrote that cervical spine surgeries for degenerative cervical spine conditions are increasing quickly and creating post-surgical pain syndromes: chronic pain, adjacent segment disease, recurrent disc herniation, facet join pain, and/or epidural scarring. Repeat surgeries may be recommended though some patients are not able to or don’t want to go through another surgery. Such patients may then turn to manual therapy for desired relief. Due to the fact that the clinical practice guidelines are composed but not very clearly for post-cervical spine surgery management, researchers reviewed published papers to determine a path of care. Of 12 articles, 10 studies on conservative care recounted favorable clinical outcomes. (4) That is hopeful! Connected Chiropractic shares this hope with our Elgin neck pain patients who have undergone cervical spine surgery for degenerative disease and other issues causing neck pain. Our gentle spinal manipulation approach called Cox® Technic provides relieving, doctor-controlled treatment of your cervical spine.
CONTACT Connected Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Chris Osterlitz on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he discusses how he treated a patient who found relief of his neck pain after a cervical spine surgery following the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management which may include nutritional advice to slow the degenerative disc disease.
Set up your Elgin chiropractic appointment today. Unwelcomed neck pain as a result of degenerative disc disease and/or adjacent segment disease after a cervical spine surgery may well find desired relief in your chiropractor’s hands.
