Aurora Chiropractic Center 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 Aurora Chiropractic Center helps many Juneau neck pain sufferers attain neck pain relief.
DDD
Degenerative disc disease (DDD) - the deterioration of a or multiple spinal discs – shows itself as low back pain and neck and arm pain. 40% of people over 40 years of age 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 respond to non-surgical treatments. (1) Degenerative disc disease is documented as starting in the second decade of life. (2) The artificial disc replacement has been around for some time. An early review of its use and efficacy stated that about 5% of DDD patients were eligible for it. Further, the review reported that lumbar artificial disc replacement was 79% superior to 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 ranged from 0% to 8.1% per implant. Adjacent segment disease was said to be 2% in one 11-year-follow-up study, but not conclusive in the clinical trial data. (1) Aurora Chiropractic Center sees post-surgical neck pain patients with such adjacent segment disease seek our Juneau chiropractic care not uncommonly.
ADJACENT SEGMENT DISEASE AFTER CERVICAL SPINE SURGERY
Spine literature has recently addressed the concern expressed in the study above about adjacent segment disease, degenerative changes at spinal segments directly next to a spinal fusion or disc implant region. The cause for such pain is described as potentially resulting from altered stresses on the adjoining levels after such procedures. In an article geared toward primary care practitioners who see post-surgical patients with spinal pain, one such patient who currently had neck pain and cervical arm pain radiculopathy with a history of having had anterior cervical disectomy and spinal fusion surgery 30 years prior for DDD. This patient had 34 sessions of chiropractic care – a combination of cervical manipulation, flexion distraction decompression, soft-tissue mobilization and therapeutic ultrasound – stated that they had relief. (3) Aurora Chiropractic Center uses flexion distraction decompression procedures to gently treat post-surgical Juneau neck pain.
POST-CERVICAL SPINE SURGERY NECK PAIN
Researchers wrote that cervical spine surgeries for degenerative cervical spine conditions are increasing swiftly 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 advised though some patients are not able to or do not want to undergo another surgery. Such patients may then turn to manual therapy for hoped relief. Because the clinical practice guidelines are composed but not very distinctly for post-cervical spine surgery management, researchers reviewed published papers to establish a path of care. Of 12 articles, 10 studies on conservative care recounted favorable clinical outcomes. (4) That is hopeful! Aurora Chiropractic Center shares this hope with our Juneau 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 Aurora Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Chris Osterlitz on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes how he helped a patient find relief of his neck pain after a cervical spine surgery using the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management which may include nutritional advice to slow the degenerative disc disease.
Make your Juneau chiropractic appointment soon. Unwelcomed neck pain due to degenerative disc disease and/or adjacent segment disease after a cervical spine surgery may well find the hoped for relief in your chiropractor’s hands.
