In order to understand cervical spine diseases, the physician's knowledge of the anatomical relations of the cervical spine is important. The cervical spine is a distinct segment of the axial skeleton. Its function is to support and stabilize the head, enable head movement in all planes, and protect the spinal cord, spinal nerves and vertebral arteries. There are 7 cervical vertebrae and 8 cervical nerve roots. The joint between the skull and the first cervical spine, which we call the Atlanta occipital, allows the head to tilt forward 10 degrees and tilt backward 25 degrees. The joint between the 1st and 2nd cervical vertebrae, the atlantaaxial joint, is responsible for 40 to 50% of neck rotation. The largest part of the forward bending movement and side bending movement of the head occurs between the 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae and the 5th and 6th cervical vertebra.
There are discs between the cervical vertebrae bones. Inside the discs is a gelatin structure that allows axial loads to be converted into smaller and distributed forces within various joint ranges of motion. Each of the discs is thicker in the front than in the back, which contributes to the natural cervical curve.
For any structure to be a source of pain depends on three basic conditions. It must have neural nutrition, it must be able to produce pain as in the examples seen in the clinic, and it must not have diseases or injuries known to cause pain. must be prone. Structures other than nerves, such as discs in the neck area, joints connecting the vertebrae, especially facet joints, ligaments and muscles, can be the focus of pain and cause pain radiating to the upper extremity, that is, the arm. Classical experiments have shown that stimulation of these structures located in the posterior midline causes both local neck pain and pain radiating to the upper extremity. Cervical spine diseases can cause pain in the arms as well as headaches. These findings may occur without stimulating the nerve tissue. This kind of radiating pain is called somatic pain. This pain is a reflection of the findings on another mesodermal structure of similar embryonic origin as a result of stimulation of a mesodermal structure such as the ligament, joint capsule, the fibrous structure surrounding the gelatin structure inside the disc, or the bone membrane. In other words, any of the structures consisting of the same cell type or the mesoderm layer, which we call the middle layer, during development in the womb. Stimulation of the pus may cause referred pain to tissues originating from other mesodermal structures. Biomechanical or chemical damage to non-neural structures triggers pain nerve fibers through compression or inflammation, and thus pain may spread.
Read: 0
