What is the Relationship Between Headaches and Neck Pain?

Headache is one of the common symptoms in clinical, there are many reasons, some of them are serious fatal diseases, but the diagnosis of the etiology often causes difficulties. This article focuses on the diagnosis of headache, including the basic knowledge and thinking methods necessary for diagnosis; secondly, it introduces the principles of treatment and the treatment of common headaches.

Neck headache

Headache is one of the common symptoms in clinical, there are many reasons, some of them are serious fatal diseases, but the diagnosis of the etiology often causes difficulties. Cervical headache is divided into: First, cervical migraine is related to cervical trauma or hyperplasia. Second, non-migraine headaches have no obvious onset and specific concomitant symptoms. Third, the head and neck neuroinflammatory headache, the occipital nerve, the supraorbital nerve, and the auricular temporal nerve can all cause neuralgia in the head nerve due to cold, infection or trauma. Headaches caused by skin, muscle, and skull lesions of the head and neck

Neck headache headache

Headache is one of the common symptoms in clinical, there are many reasons, some of them are serious fatal diseases, but the diagnosis of the etiology often causes difficulties. This article focuses on the diagnosis of headache, including the basic knowledge and thinking methods necessary for diagnosis; secondly, it introduces the principles of treatment and the treatment of common headaches.

Classification of neck headaches

1. Cervical migraine is related to cervical trauma or hyperplasia. Symptoms are similar to migraines, but headaches are accompanied by vertebral arterial spasm, such as vertigo, pain in the ears, foreign body sensation in the pharynx, dysphagia, etc., as well as numbness, pain, and weakness in the upper limbs of the headache Thoracic nerve root irritation symptoms. With the recovery of the headache, the above symptoms disappeared. There may be some signs of restricted neck movements, neck muscle tenderness, and cervical and thoracic nerve root damage during intermittent periods, and some may have mild persistent headaches.

2. Non-migraine has no obvious onset and specific concomitant symptoms. Most of them are caused by systemic diseases that cause intracranial and extracranial vasodilation, such as infection, poisoning, high fever, high blood pressure, various hypoxic conditions (insufficient blood supply to the brain, cardiopulmonary insufficiency, anemia, altitude sickness), and hypoglycemia. There are constant primary symptoms that can be diagnosed. In addition, there is still temporal arteritis, which is more common in middle-aged and elderly men, and is partly related to gum disease. At the beginning of the disease, pain in the gums and occipital neck, followed by severe pulsatile temporal arteries, stiffening, tenderness, flexion, and nodularity of the temporal arteries, local swelling and erythema appearing on the skin, and weight loss, fever, white blood cells, and increased blood sediment And other systemic symptoms. When the lesions involve the ophthalmic and intracranial arteries, visual impairment and other neuropsychiatric symptoms can occur. Some of this disease can heal itself, but hormone therapy should still be used early.

3. Head and neck neuritic headache, the occipital nerve, supraorbital nerve, and temporal auricular nerve can all cause neuralgia of the head nerve due to cold, infection or trauma. The first branch of the trigeminal nerve can also cause persistent or accompanying exacerbation of pain in the forehead due to infection and cold, which is called trigeminitis or symptomatic trigeminal neuralgia.

4. Headaches caused by skin, muscle, and skull lesions of the head and neck:

1) Acute scalp infection, bloated, and skull tumors can cause local headaches. The primary lesion is obvious and the diagnosis is not difficult.

2) Tension headache (muscle contraction headache): quite common. It is caused by the continuous contraction of the head and neck muscles, mostly persistent dull pain in the forehead, occipital neck, or the entire head. Most of the causes are caused by mental stress or anxiety, and can also be secondary to headaches of vascular headache or facial features, sometimes caused by head and neck myositis, cervical muscle strain, or cervical spondylosis.

Neck headache treatment

In the past decades, people have made many attempts for the treatment of lumbar spondylosis, and also created and developed a variety of treatment methods. Can be divided into non-invasive conservative therapy, open surgery and minimally invasive treatment. Conservative treatment can cure 90% of patients, and it is better for those with first or short attack, smaller disc herniation, less compression on the spinal cord or nerve root, and milder symptoms. Conservative treatment methods such as oral medication, acupuncture and massage, rehabilitation physiotherapy, silver needle, small needle knife, nerve block, palliative care, and epidural catheterization, etc., are all part of the clinical symptoms can be relieved through extravertebral canalization, but cannot be treated. It has a direct therapeutic effect on the herniated disc. According to different conditions, as long as they are used properly, they have certain effects. However, these conservative treatment methods are mainly aimed at the symptomatic treatment of radiculitis caused by the compression of nerve roots by lumbar intervertebral discs. They often only eliminate or reduce symptoms, but cannot cure lumbar disc herniation. Therefore, they have the disadvantages of slow recovery and easy recurrence. For cases with large disc herniations and significant compression of the spinal cord and nerves, there is often nothing that can be done. Some treatment methods can be used improperly and can even aggravate the disease. Care and caution should be used.

Traditional open surgery is a complete solution to the problem. In the past, surgical treatment of lumbar disc herniation was mainly based on open surgery to remove the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disc. The success rate of the operation was also relatively high. Wide range, heavy bleeding, unavoidable soft tissue damage, bone damage, disrupted spinal stability, prolonged bed rest and postoperative recovery time, and more common adverse effects such as nerve adhesion or epidural adhesion, which make patients Fear of surgery. Patients are often not easy to accept, and some patients survive because of fear of surgery. Therefore, many medical workers and the majority of patients with low back and leg pain are eager to have an ideal method without surgery, less trauma, less pain, quick recovery, good curative effect, safe and simple.

One of the important development trends of modern surgery is the limited and minimally invasive surgery. With the rapid development of medical technology, the research of microtraumatic spine surgery has become a hot spot in spine surgery today. Since the 1990s, various internationally minimally invasive treatment technologies introduced in the country have brought intervertebral disc treatment to a new level. Its minimal trauma and safety have gradually attracted widespread attention. Some minimally invasive surgery has begun to be widely used in clinical practice, such as nuclear dissection, aspiration, discectomy and so on. At present, the methods of using minimally invasive surgery at home and abroad to treat disc herniation are:

1. Collagenase nucleolysis: The main component of human intervertebral disc is collagen tissue. Using collagenase's specific solubility for collagen molecules, collagenase is injected into the disc herniation site to destroy the collagen component in the protrusion. Dissolution can completely achieve the purpose of making the protrusions smaller and disappear, thereby releasing nerve compression and improving clinical symptoms.

2. Percutaneous lumbar discectomy (PLD): Under image monitoring, the working cannula is directly inserted into the intervertebral disc, and part of the nucleus pulposus is taken out using a clamp cutting and negative pressure system, thereby reducing the pressure in the disc and causing pressure on the fiber annulus Relieve and relieve compression on nerve roots.

3. Percutaneous endoscopic discectomy (PED): discectomy is divided into lateral discectomy and posterior discectomy. Lateral discectomy is based on incision and suction, and an additional discectomy system is added. Make the aspiration under the monitoring of discoscopy more safe and effective. The posterior endoscope is a combination of the advantages of the lateral laminoscope and the small interlaminar window-opening technique. Only a small opening is opened at the corresponding point of the intervertebral disc lesion, and the intervertebral disc endoscope system is inserted into the disc. Nuclear process to achieve the purpose of treatment.

4. Percutaneous laser lumbar disc decompression (PLDD): use laser energy to hollow the nucleus pulposus of the disease, reduce the pressure in the intervertebral disc, relieve and eliminate the compression of the sciatic nerve or spinal nerve to achieve the purpose of treatment.

5. Ozone nucleolysis (PIMOI): This therapy uses fine needle puncture into the intervertebral disc, and injects a small amount of ozone gas to dehydrate and shrink the nucleus pulposus tissue to achieve the purpose of decompressing the intervertebral disc. The main principle is to use the instantaneous and powerful oxidation function of ozone to achieve dehydration, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects.

6. Intervertebral disc electrothermal therapy (IDET): used to treat lower back pain associated with rupture of the annulus fibrosus. Under the monitoring of imaging equipment, a ring-shaped metal thermal electrode was inserted into the fibrous ring through a guide pin, and the damaged fibrous ring was repaired by heating, while the supersensitive nerve endings in the fibrous ring were destroyed. This is a method of heating and denervation for lower back pain.

7. Radiofrequency ablation nucleus pulposcopy (NP): A radiofrequency vaporization rod is penetrated into the nucleus pulposus, and the energy generated by the two-stage radiofrequency is used to convert the electrolyte between the radiofrequency blade and the tissue into an ion vapor layer of plasma. Multiple channels are cut in the disc to relieve pain and reduce nerve root stimulation of the disc tissue.

The above-mentioned minimally invasive treatment methods either reduce the volume of the nucleus pulposus, indirectly achieve decompression, or repair the fibrous ring to achieve the purpose of treatment, but these methods have not directly treated the prominent nucleus pulposus tissue. In the treatment of cervical spondylotic cervical spondylosis, self-treatment methods can also be used. Ainokang Chinese medicine special pillow for treating cervical spondylotic cervical spondylosis is a method that has been recognized by patients. And with many complications such as bleeding, infection, narrowing of intervertebral space, higher incidence of nerve damage and so on. For this reason, we use the functional characteristics of the radio frequency instrument, through direct observation and repeated clinical practice, to design a nucleus pulposus that can directly eliminate nerve compression, and can repair the fibrous ring, and eliminate inflammatory factors. Minimally invasive treatment of hypersensitive nerve ending stimulation in the fibrous ring-radiofrequency target thermocoagulation therapy.

Radiofrequency thermocoagulation target therapy for neck headache

1. Efficient and safe: The puncture needle treated by the special-purpose radio frequency instrument for the nervous system is only 0.7mm, just like an acupuncture needle. The entire treatment does not require anesthesia, analgesics, antibiotics, and hormones. There is only one physical change process without any side effects on the human body. It The diseased nuclear tissue is directly removed without harming normal tissues, making the treatment greener and more humane.

2. Accurate positioning: The radiofrequency thermocoagulation target treatment is accurately positioned on the C-arm X-ray machine, and is constantly detected under digital subtraction. The precise guidance of the navigation system directly acts on the nucleus pulposus of the lesion. Less than 1 degree makes the treatment more accurate and effective.

3. Identification of the nerve: The precise identification and stimulation function of the nervous system unique to the special-purpose radio frequency instrument can detect nerves within 1cm of the treatment range and accurately distinguish the motor and sensory nerves, that is, during treatment It is impossible for you to damage the nerves of the patient.

4. Fine identification of tissues: The unique impedance display function of this device can accurately distinguish the nucleus pulposus fibrous ring, calcification points, bone and blood vessels, and accurately display the tone and numbers to make the treatment more accurate and safe.

5. Temperature controllable: The radio frequency instrument can adjust the temperature arbitrarily, and the error is below 2 ° C to ensure the safety during treatment. There is no infection and no thermal damage after treatment.

6. Precise calculation: Precisely calculate the volume of the lesion to be removed before treatment, and make a plan, that is, go as much as the nucleus pulposus of the lesion, making the treatment more efficient.