Fort Wayne Cervical Spine Pain: MRI-Seen Changes, & Plan for Care
Studying the cervical spine of neck pain sufferers who have MRIs noting some changes in the spine can be interesting, confusing, and/or (non)directive for treatment planning. Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc always considers imaging through the lens of the clinical symptomatology and spinal examination. Fort Wayne neck pain with imaging-revealed changes in the cervical spine will get a treatment plan based on both imaging (if/when available) and clinical exam findings.
MRI is an amazing technology. It is used commonly to evaluate intervertebral disc degeneration. When spine pain continues without relief while undergoing care for an extended period of time, doing imaging is logical and follows today’s guidelines for back pain management. The imaging findings must be linked with the clinical symptomatology found in the clinical exam to guide the care for optimal relief. Modic Changes – vertebral bone endplate and bone marrow changes - are typically noted when radiologists review the MRI and classify the level of disc degeneration with level 1 being the least degenerated and level 3 being the most degenerated. In the lumbar spine, more studies have been done to correlate back pain symptoms with imaging findings. In the cervical spine, the studies are fewer. A review of 14 research studies regarding the connection between neck pain and/or cervical spine disc degeneration to MRI-revealed Modic changes reported that cervical spine Modic changes were present in 5% to 40% of the images. Patients whose MRIs revealed Modic changes described more neck pain and disability. Their imaging also demonstrated more cervical disc degeneration. (1) Recently, one MRI study of cervical spines of neck pain and shoulder stiffness patients reported that no classification system of cervical disc degeneration showed any relationship to clinical symptoms. However, the researchers did explain that vertebral endplate changes may be connected to clinical symptom presentations. (2) Disc degeneration and vertebral changes causing pain can be addressed with chiropractic care.
TREATMENT PLANNING
When [[companyname treats patients with MRI imaging showing Modic changes, researchers and clinicians have been challenged to correlate effective non-surgical treatment options. Review of studies previously published about the treatment of Modic change associated back pain, in this review it was low back pain, revealed that spinal manipulation was suggested as an option. The review listed insufficient support for medication use and rigid lumbar brace wearing, controversial use of antibiotics, and exercise therapy’s use to lower back pain intensity as having low evidence support. (3) Do you see how imaging can be interesting, confusing, and/or (non)directive? One treatment your Fort Wayne chiropractor competently and safely delivers is spinal manipulation for neck pain and back pain relief manytimes before and/or despite imaging. Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc stays the course with what we see is good for our patients.
CONTACT Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc
Listen to the PODCAST with Dr. Matthew Scott on the Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the effective, gentle treatment with the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for his patient with cervical spine disc degeneration and herniation that allowed him to avoid spine surgery.
Make your next Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment with Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc. MRIs and Modic changes won’t mislead your chiropractor when it comes to establishing a neck pain relieving cervical spine treatment plan.
