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Reading on Cervical issues today so thought I would post this.


Bone spurs, also known as osteophytes, are bony projections that form along joints and are often seen in conditions such as arthritis. The bone spurs themselves aren't painful, but they can rub against nearby nerves and cause pain.

Bone spurs are largely responsible for limitations in joint motion. The reason for bone spur formation is the body's attempt to increase the surface area of a joint to better distribute weight across a joint surface that has been damaged by arthritis or other conditions. Unfortunately, this is largely wasted effort by our body as the bone spur can become restrictive and painful.

Bone spurs are a signal of an underlying problem that often needs to be addressed. It isn't clear what causes bone spurs, but doctors believe they occur in reaction to changes in your joints due to diseases and aging - most commonly osteoarthritis.

Symptoms

Where your bone spurs are located determines where you'll feel pain and whether you'll experience any other signs or symptoms. For instance, bones spurs on the bones of your spine can push against your nerves causing intermittent or constant pain.

Causes

As osteoarthritis breaks down the cartilage in your joint, your body attempts to repair the loss. Often this means creating new areas of bone along the edges of your existing bones.

Your body may also create bone spurs to add stability to aging joints. Bone spurs are the hallmark of other diseases and conditions, including:

• Spondylosis. In this condition, osteoarthritis and bone spurs cause degeneration of the bones in your neck (cervical spondylosis) or your lower back (lumbar spondylosis).
• Spinal stenosis. Bone spurs can contribute to a narrowing of the bones that make up your spine (spinal stenosis), putting pressure on your spinal cord.

Complications

Bone spurs can break off from the larger bone, becoming what doctors call loose bodies. Often bone spurs that have become loose bodies will float in your joint or become embedded in the lining of the joint (synovium). Loose bodies can drift into the areas in between the bones that make up your joint, getting in the way and causing intermittent locking - a sensation that something is preventing you from moving your joint. This joint locking can come and go as the loose bodies move into and out of the way of your joint.

Causes of Whiplash

The most common whiplash injuries occur when a motor vehicle is struck from behind, causing the occupant's body to thrust forward as the head snaps back and then forward until the chin strikes the chest. This violent motion, which can happen several times in quick succession, inspired the descriptive term "whiplash."

Although front-end and side collisions wrench the head and neck in different ways, they can produce similar neck sprains. Any of these motions can hyperextend the neck beyond its normal range of motion, damaging muscle, ligaments, and connective tissue - and sometimes other structures as well.

Prior to 1969, when automobile headrests became standard equipment, there was nothing to limit back-and-forth head movement in a rear-end collision. Although properly positioned headrests can reduce the incidence of neck pain after rear-end collisions, these injuries still occur.

Symptoms of Whiplash

Researchers have identified a broad spectrum of injuries and symptoms associated with whiplash. In most cases, soft tissues, mainly muscles and ligaments, cause pain because they have been stretched beyond normal limits. On occasion, they may bleed or even tear. In a few instances, violent whiplash motion can squeeze the discs of the cervical spine so hard that they herniate and press on a nerve. Spinal vertebrae can also be knocked painfully out of alignment.

The most common form of whiplash injury is neck strain that manifests as temporary pain and stiffness. One may not feel significant discomfort until several days after the accident. Then the pain may gradually intensify, moving to the back of the head, chest muscles and one or both shoulders and upper arms. The person may complain of hoarseness and have difficulty in swallowing. The neck typically feels tender, swollen and hurts when turned from side to side.

Some people also experience muscle spasms. Those who sustain head injuries may have episodes of blurred vision, ringing or buzzing in the ears and dizziness.

More serious whiplash injuries may involve damage to blood vessels, nerves or the spine.

Bulging discs are not uncommon, and frequently are displayed on MRIs as an abnormality for both young and older adults. Having a bulging disc is not necessarily a serious concern, and it may not even cause back pain. Bulging most likely happens as the body ages and degeneration of the intervertebral disc occurs. A bulging disc is formed when the soft, spongy center of the disc, the nucleus pulposus, pushes out and places pressure on the outer surrounding fibrous ligament, the annulus fibrosis that contains the center. Unlike a herniated disc, the bulging disc still contains the nucleus material. A bulging disc can be problematic when the protrusion against the annulus enters into the space of the spinal canal. If bone spurs form on the facet joints behind the bulging disc, the combination of the bulging and spur growth can narrow the spinal canal. This occurrence is referred to as spinal stenosis.

Disc disorders are contained or non-contained. A bulging disc is an example of a contained disc disorder. A bulging disc has not broken open; the nucleus pulposus remains contained within the anulus fibrosus. A bulging disc could be compared to a volcano prior to eruption and may be a precursor to herniation. The disc may protrude into the spinal canal without breaking open. The gel-like interior (nucleus pulposus) does not leak out. The disc remains intact except a small bubble pops out attached to the disc.

A non-contained disc is one that has either partially or completely broken open; a herniated or ruptured disc. To illustrate imagine a tube (anulus fibrosus) of toothpaste (nucleus pulposus) placed under pressure. The pressure causes the toothpaste within the tube to move wherever it can. If any part of the tube is weak toothpaste may leak out. When a disc herniates the contents may spread out to the spinal cord and nerves. The disc material has little space to go --- into the area occupied by the spinal canal and nerve roots.

Returning to the leaky tube of toothpaste, the disc's gel-like nucleus contains a chemical that irritates the nerves causing them to swell. After the chemical agent has done its job, the remnants of the chemical remain and continue to press on the irritated and swollen nerves. To complicate matters, sometimes fragments from the anulus (tire-like outer disc wall) break away from the parent disc and drift into the spinal canal. These free fragments may travel in the spinal canal. Depending on the type of injury and the condition of the discs, more than one disc may herniate, rupture, or bulge. Sometimes injury causes a combination of disc disorders