| Relationship Between Cervical Elongated Spinous Process and Chronic Neck Pain |
|
Sung-Hoon Min , Hyo Joon Kim |
|
Department of Neurosurgery, Presbyterian Medical Center, University of Seonam College of Medicine, Jeonju, Korea |
|
|
| Abstract |
Objective
Today, many people suffer from neck pain. Medication and anesthetic blockage or neurolysis can be used as treatments for these patients. However, despite these treatments, some people continue to complain about the pain without improvement. Interestingly, elongated spinous processes were found in these individuals.
Methods
This study was performed with retrospective uncontrolled study method. Fifty chronic cervicalgia patients were surveyed by pain mapping and were analyzed by pain pattern. All the patients were injected with traditional Medial branch block (MBB). Spinous process elongation was measured by summation of each cervical level in the plain radiograph film. By the pain mapping, five types of cervicalgia were classified into Type A to E. Spinous Process Elongation Grade (SPEG) score was determined by number and length of elongated cervical processes.
Results
The average SPEG score of Type A was 4 and Type E was 5.5. MBB treatment was most effective in Type A. Difference in visual analogue scale (VAS) score between pre and post MBB in Type A group, was up to 6 which was the highest, in Type E was only up to 2 and in other types it varied between 2.60-4.25. Higher the SPEG score, less treatment effect of MBB was seen.
Conclusion
The elongated cervical spinous process has the possibility of suggesting new mechanisms for cervicalgia. This study suggests that there is a relationship between cervicalgia and elongated cervical spinous process and this may be the reason for the difficulty in controlling pain in such patients. |
| Key Words:
Neck pain, Chronic pain, Musculoskeletal pain, Complementary therapies |
|
PDF Links
Download Citation
