Neck Pain
Neck pain is a common issue with various causes, from poor posture to medical conditions. Our blog series explores its triggers, symptoms, and effective treatments, offering insights to manage discomfort and improve quality of life.
Subscribe to the BlogCan You Have Serious Neck Injuries and a “Normal” MRI?
MRI has been a game-changing technology in medicine. However, as I have blogged many times, our overreliance on MRI reports as physicians who treat patients in pain isn’t a net positive. So today we’ll go over a concept that’s not new, that serious traumatic neck injuries may not be detected on MRI. Let’s dive in.…read more
CCI and DMX: Can You Still Have Instability with a Normal DMX? What Is a False Negative?
You can’t beat movement-based imaging for finding Cervical Instability. However, all imaging has a false-negative rate. Let’s discuss that and learn about instability in the process. Let’s dig in. What Is Instability? If you had to choose a single concept of what goes wrong in the spine as the most important thing you should know,…read more
Surgically Damaging the Neck
Surgery is damage to accomplish a goal. I say that to patients all the time, but it always helps to have a visual. This morning we’ll go over a patient who had multiple neck surgeries that left her with clear and visible damage on her neck MRI. Let’s dig in. Damage to Accomplish a Goal…read more
What Is Cervical Medullary Syndrome?
What happens when the neck bones impinge on the upper spinal cord and brain stem? This is called Cervical Medullary Syndrome. Let’s explore what this is and why it happens. Let’s dig in. The Background Anatomy The normal upper neck anatomy is unique in that nature has built in quite a bit of space around…read more
Jugular Vein Compression Due to the Neck and CCI
Can your neck compress critical blood vessels and cause other symptoms? Yes, it can and one of the most common causes is Craniocervical Instability or CCI causing C2 to compress the internal Jugular Vein. What is Jugular Vein Compression? How exactly does it happen? What can be done? Let’s dig in. What Is the Jugular…read more
Whiplash Leads to More Long-term Pain at 20 Years
Does getting a neck injury in a car crash, even if it heals, cause long-term problems? That’s what a recent study set out to determine. Let’s dig in. WAD More than 20 years ago, some Canadian researchers in Quebec (QTF or Quebec Task Force) came up with the term “WAD” which means “Whiplash Associated Disorders”…read more
What Are CCI Symptoms?
Craniocervical Instability (CCI) is a condition that hasn’t been studied with the same level of detail as many other more common medical diagnoses. Even symptoms are poorly researched. I’d like to change that and my contribution is now the results of the first formal survey of CCI symptoms. Let’s dig in. What Is CCI? CCI…read more
Why the C1-C2 Facet Joint Is Inherently Unstable
Your neck has joints about the size of your finger joints that help to control motion. One of them is pretty unique and is responsible for most of your head rotation. It’s also designed in a unique way that makes it inherently unstable and can cause vicious headaches if injured. Let’s explore the C1-C2 facet…read more 
