[Neck pain. Functional and radiological findings compared with topical pain descriptions]

Abstract

Topical pain descriptions of the neck are summarized under the unspecific diagnosis "cervical syndrome" (CS). Neck pain localized in the cranial half of the cervical spine attended with occipital extension is defined as "cervicocephalic syndrome" (OCS). Pain concerning the caudal half with extention in both upper limbs or into the interscapular region is called "cervicobrachial syndrom" (UCS). The combination of both syndromes is described as "cervicocephalic and -brachial syndrom" (OUCS).The retrospective analyzed cohort of 75 patients showed a distribution of incidence of 1:20:17 of OCS : UCS : OUCS. Symptoms like headache, vertigo or tinnitus were reported in 34.7% of all cases, only 4% had MRI documented radicular lesions. Functional disturbances showed a maximum in the segments C2-3 (81.4%) and C3-4 (66.7%). Segmental blockades occurred 6 times more frequently than segmental hyper-mobility. Most of the radiological findings were localized in the vertebral segments C4-5 and C5-6, degenerative disc and joint diseases were predominant. The distribution of functional disturbances and radiological findings of the vertebral segments showed no significant coincidence. Therefore this study proved that there are no correlations between manual-medical findings and radiological results related to the subtypes of chronic neck pain.