You must have heard of "cervical spondylosis", right?
Usually, there are patients in the outpatient clinic who will directly say to me as soon as they enter the room: Doctor, I have cervical spondylosis, you can prescribe some medicine for me.
Yes, cervical spondylosis is a specialized, separate disease in many people's lives. However, in fact, this is not the case, the cervical spondylosis we often talk about is not "one" single disease, but a general name for a bunch of diseases of the neck.
Too many words too lazy to read the version:
(1) "Cervical spondylosis" is not a disease, but a general term for a bunch of diseases, which is a less accurate name. As long as one or more of these structures that make up the neck have problems and cause discomfort to the patient, it can be called cervical spondylosis.
(2) Although cervical spondylosis is a general term for a bunch of diseases, this bunch of diseases is only divided into three categories according to the severity of the disease and different treatments, namely: the most common and mild cervical spondylosis, the intermediate radiculopathy, and the most serious and dangerous cervical myelopathy.
1. What exactly is cervical spondylosis?
Our neck, in fact, is made up of a bunch of important structures.
From the outside to the inside, there are the muscles and ligaments of the neck, and a little deeper are the bones of the cervical vertebrae, the joints between the vertebral bones, and the intervertebral discs between the vertebral bodies, and further inside are the most important nerve roots and spinal cord in the bones.
In fact, there is only one part of this pile of structures that has a problem and causes discomfort to the patient, such as neck pain or numbness in the arms and hands. Then at this time, we can all call it "cervical spondylosis".
Yes, now you understand that the general term cervical spondylosis actually includes neck muscle injury, inflammation of the cervical fascia, cervical intervertebral arthritis, cervical disc herniation, and various diseases that affect the nerve roots of the cervical spinal cord. These are collectively referred to as "cervical spondylosis".
In fact, in the professional circle of our doctors, there has been a great controversy about the name of cervical spondylosis for a long time. The industry has repeatedly held many professional meetings, all trying to change the concept of "cervical spondylosis" to a more accurate and appropriate name. In fact, the communication between doctors rarely uses the word "cervical spondylosis", but more accurate disease names, such as: cervical cervical spondylosis, cervical disc herniation, cervical myelopathy, etc. However, because the general name of cervical spondylosis has been applied for too long and is too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, we doctors still use the name "cervical spondylosis" for the sake of ease of understanding when communicating with patients.
It's just that as a friend who is studying our course, you must understand this premise at the beginning:
The so-called "cervical spondylosis" is not a disease, but actually a general term for a bunch of diseases, which is a less accurate name. As long as one or more of these structures that make up the neck have problems and cause discomfort to the patient, it can be called cervical spondylosis.
Understanding this, you can easily understand that it is impossible for all patients with cervical spondylosis to have the same treatment. Therefore, in order to get more accurate, safe and effective treatment, cervical spondylosis must continue to be subdivided into different types and different severities to give corresponding treatment.
2. What are the common types of cervical spondylosis, which is the most common, and which is the mildest and most severe?
Most popular science articles on the Internet will tell you that cervical spondylosis is divided into 5 types, and some will even tell you that there are 6 types. Most people don't even have the idea of watching it, and even if they insist on reading it, the whole person is not good.
In fact, these are some outdated names in very old textbooks in China, and they all seem to be inaccurate now. For example, it was previously thought that there was a type of cervical spondylosis called vertebral artery cervical spondylosis, which was mainly manifested as dizziness caused by the cervical spine, but later we found that the vast majority of dizziness was actually caused by neurology or otolaryngology diseases, not cervical spondylosis at all, so now we basically do not mention this statement. And there are no such names in the textbooks of foreign doctors.
Therefore, you just need to know: cervical spondylosis is divided into three categories according to different conditions and different treatments. These three types of cervical spondylosis, in order of mild to severe disease and treatment from easy to difficult, are: cervical cervical spondylosis, radiculopathy and cervical myelopathy. Let's briefly answer each other, which is actually very easy to understand.
The so-called cervical spondylosis is the most common and mild form of cervical spondylosis, which can be understood as the beginning of cervical spondylosis, which is a relatively slight change in the local structure of the cervical spine, but these changes do not compress and stimulate the most important nerve roots and spinal cord in the deep neck.
More severely, if the lesion of some structures in the neck is slightly severe, and the compression stimulates the deep nerve roots, but does not compress and stimulate the spinal cord, then it is cervical radiculopathy.
The spinal cord, as the higher nerve center of the human body, is also the gathering place of those neurons that can never be renewed, if the spinal cord is compressed and stimulated in the neck, it is the most serious and terrible cervical spondylosis, which we call cervical myelopathy.
3. Summary
To sum up, although cervical spondylosis is a general term for a bunch of diseases, this bunch of diseases is only divided into three categories according to the severity of the disease and different treatments, namely: the most common and mild cervical spondylosis, the intermediate cervical radiculopathy, and the most serious and dangerous cervical myelopathy.
Source: Orthopedic surgeons along the way