Neck disc is a representative degenerative disease, but recently, due to excessive use of smartphones and PCs, it is increasing significantly in young people. Initially, it starts with mild pain, but after a certain period of time, serious pain and tingling symptoms may appear and nerve palsy may occur, so caution is required. If conservative treatment such as medication or physical therapy does not relieve symptoms or accompanies paralysis symptoms, surgery should be considered. Recently, side effects and sequelae were greatly reduced with minimal incision in the back of the neck through an endoscope. With Professor Joong-Hyun Ahn of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Gangdong Kyunghee University Hospital, we will learn more about the surgical treatment of neck disc
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A disease caused by nerve pressure in the neck (disc)
The human neck has seven neck (cervical) bones, and between the cervical bones (in medical terms, the cervical vertebra), there is a disc (intervertebral disc), commonly called the mullion bone. Normally, it forms a C-shaped curve and absorbs and regulates the shock or load transmitted to the human body, and the neck moves freely along with the posterior joint of the spine. The neck disc is a symptom of pain and paralysis caused by protruding the neck bones due to aging, incorrect posture, and repeated trauma and compressing the nerves passing through the neck bone.
Recently, young patients are increasing due to excessive use of smartphones
The most common cause of neck disc is degenerative changes that occur with age after middle age. However, recently, young neck discs are increasing due to the wrong posture. If you look at your smartphone or PC monitor for a long time, or if you keep your head down while studying for a long time, sleeping with a pillow high when you sleep can cause straight neck or turtle neck syndrome, which can lead to neck discs if left alone. There is a concern.
Starts with neck and shoulder pain, until general paralysis
Initially, it complains of pain in the back of the neck, around the wing bone, or pain in the shoulder, and the pain intensifies when moving the neck. If it gets worse, the arm may become numb or pull, and the hand or arm may become numb or numb. In addition, depending on the location of the neck disc, various tingling symptoms may occur throughout the body, such as laryngeal pain, chest pain, numbness in the hands and feet, and when nerve bundles are compressed, choking may not be possible, walking disorders occur, legs are dragged, and urine Paralysis can also occur, such as difficulty seeing. In this case, you should go to a hospital and get treatment soon.
Correction with conservative treatment of nearly 90%, consider surgery if paralysis
In fact, in more than 90% of patients with cervical disc, symptoms can be relieved with conservative treatments such as drug therapy, physical therapy, nerve block or exercise therapy, along with correct posture correction. However, in about 5-10% of cases, surgical treatment is absolutely necessary. Despite active conservative treatment for more than 6 weeks, the symptoms of nerve root compression are severe, and there are limitations in daily life due to pain, stool disorder, and progressive nerve (paralysis) symptoms. If surgery is necessary, it should be done early. This is because if the timing is missed, it may be impossible to recover from paralysis due to permanent changes in the nerve itself.
Minimally invasive endoscopic surgery to reduce the burden and sequelae
Among the neck disc surgery, the most popular surgery in recent years is the posterior keyhole intervertebral disc expansion (Keyhole Foraminotomy). It is a method of treating the lesion by easily accessing the lesion area through a small incision like a keyhole in the back of the neck and viewing the enlarged image with a microscope or an endoscope. Damage to normal tissue can be minimized, pain after spinal surgery is less, and there is little difficulty in starting activities very quickly after surgery. However, it is difficult to apply to some patients who require an anterior cervical fusion surgery to incise the front of the neck.
Professor Joong-Hyun Ahn of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Spine Center of Kangdong Kyung Hee University Hospital said, “This surgical method in particular has been reported to reduce reoperation due to postoperative effects in patients under the age of 50 to 60, which is a relatively young age.” Despite this, it is a relatively safe and easy way to solve the neck disc problem in patients whose symptoms have not been resolved.”
Advantages of the posterior cervical key-hole surgery
1. Compared to anterior cervical fusion, the movement of the neck can be preserved.
2. There is no scar on the front of the neck, so it is cosmetically excellent.
3. After surgery, most of them can be active on the same day and return to daily life very quickly.
4. After anterior cervical fusion, reoperation can be performed when symptoms recur or sequelae occur.
5. There are no complications (e.g. food intake, airway or esophageal damage, vocalization, breathing, Horner syndrome, etc.) that can occur due to anterior surgery.
How to prevent neck disc in life
Neck disc is a disease that is accompanied by degenerative changes with age. Of course, disc disease has a family history, but the chronic tension and fatigue of the muscles around the neck, limited to certain areas, resulting from degenerative changes and having to maintain the same posture for a long time, such as drivers, students, and workplace workers, put a lot of pressure on the neck joint. give. If the wrong posture persists, the C-shaped curve seen from the neck of normal people becomes a straight neck and a turtle neck, which further adversely affects the neck disc. Therefore, correct posture is the most important. It is helpful to do simple neck stretches or gymnastics with a break in between. It is better not to have the pillow too high at bedtime.
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