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Pain in the neck and back
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Pain in the back and neck often occurs, especially in the elderly. Pain in the lower back is 50% of people over the age of 60 years. Symptoms of pain in the back and in the neck can include just local pain, acute or dull, chronic or remitting, depending on some reason and accompanied by a muscle spasm. The reflex stress of the paraspinal muscles in response to a painful spinal injury can be more painful than the underlying cause. With the defeat of the spinal cord or spinal cord, various neurological symptoms may occur, including sensory disorders and muscle weakness. Back pain can radiate distally in the case of lesions of the spinal roots.
The main diseases that cause pain in the neck and back
Localization of pain |
Diseases |
Only cervical pain |
Atlanto-axial subluxation Reflex pain in vertebral and carotid artery dissection, angina, myocardial infarction, Herpes zoster Temporomandibular joint disease Spasmodic torticollis Subarachnoid haemorrhage |
Only lower back pain |
Stenosis of the spinal canal at the lumbar level Sclerosing osteitis of the ilium Osteoporotic fractures (also can Reflex pain in diseases of the femur Reflected visceral pain in dissection or aortic aneurysm, renal colic, pancreatitis, retroperitoneal tumor, pleurisy, pyelonephritis Sili-sacral osteoarthritis Sacralomyelitis Spondylolisthesis |
Pain in the neck and lower back |
Ankylosing spondylitis (usually in the lower back and thoracic region) Arthritis (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis rarely affects the lower back) Congenital anomalies (eg, spina bifida, SI lumbarization) Fibromyalgia Diseases of the intervertebral disc Infectious diseases (eg, osteomyelitis, discitis, spinal epidural abscess, infectious arthritis) Injuries (for example, dislocations, subluxations, fractures) Stretching (overstrain) of muscles and ligaments Paget's disease Rheumatic polymyalgia Tumor (primary or metastatic) Compression of the spinal cord |
All causes of back pain can be conditionally divided into three categories (percentage indicated average frequency of occurrence):
- Mechanical (97%)
- Non-mechanical (~ 1%)
- Visceral (~ 2%)
Mechanical back pain:
- Lumbar overload and tension - myogenic pain (70%)
- Degeneration of discs and facet joints (10%)
- Herniated disc (4%)
- Osteoporetic compression fractures (4%)
- Spinal stenosis (3%)
- Spondylolisthesis (2%)
- Traumatic fractures (<1%)
- Congenital diseases (<1%)
- Severe kyphosis or scoliosis
- Transitional vertebrae
- Spondylolysis
- Internal disk rupture
- The alleged instability
Non-mechanical pain in the back:
- Neoplasia (0.7%)
- Multiple myeloma
- Metastases of carcinoma
- Lymphoma and leukemia
- Tumors of the spinal cord
- Retroperitoneal tumors
- Primary vertebral tumors
- Infections (0.01%)
- Osteomyelitis
- Septic discitis
- Paraspinal abscess
- Epidural abscess
- Shingles
- Inflammatory arthritis (0.3%)
- Ankylosing spondylitis
- Reiter's syndrome
- Visceral inflammatory pathology
- Schoeirmmann's disease (osteochondrosis)
- Paget's disease
Visceral pain in the back:
- Diseases of the pelvic organs:
- Prostatitis
- Endometriosis
- Chronic inflammatory diseases of the pelvic organs
- Kidney Diseases
- Nephrolithiasis
- Pyelonephritis
- Perinephric abscess
- Aortic aneurysm
- Diseases of the digestive tract
- Pancreatitis
- Cholecystitis
- Penetration of ulcers