Johnson Chiropractic Offers Relieving Care for Post-Surgical Neck Pain
Neck pain anytime isn’t 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 conditions at Johnson Chiropractic helps many Richmond neck pain sufferers get 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 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 cervical disc degeneration will not respond to non-surgical treatments. (1) Degenerative disc disease is documented to start as early as in the second decade of life. (2) The artificial disc replacement has existed for some time. An early analysis of its use and efficacy stated that about 5% of DDD patients were appropriate for it. Further, the review stated 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 varied 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) Johnson Chiropractic sees post-surgical neck pain patients experiencing such adjacent segment disease pursue our Richmond chiropractic care not uncommonly.
ADJACENT SEGMENT DISEASE AFTER CERVICAL SPINE SURGERY
Spine literature has recently addressed 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 region. The cause for such pain is described as potentially arising from altered stresses on the adjacent levels after such procedures. In an article written for an audience of 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 having undergone anterior cervical disectomy and spinal fusion surgery 30 years prior for DDD. This patient underwent 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) Johnson Chiropractic uses flexion distraction decompression procedures to gently address post-surgical Richmond neck pain.
POST-CERVICAL SPINE SURGERY NECK PAIN
Researchers wrote that cervical spine surgeries for degenerative cervical spine conditions are rising 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 unable to or unwilling to undergo another surgery. Such patients may then turn to manual therapy for desired relief. Because the clinical practice guidelines are composed but not very clearly for post-cervical spine surgery management, researchers reviewed published papers to establish a path of care. Of 12 articles, 10 studies on conservative care reported favorable clinical outcomes. (4) That is hopeful! Johnson Chiropractic imparts this hope with our Richmond 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 allows relieving, doctor-monitored treatment of your cervical spine.
CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Chris Osterlitz on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he discusses 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.
Schedule your Richmond 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 the hoped for relief in your chiropractor’s hands.
