Recently In a Car Accident? What to Know about Cervical Spinal Stenosis
- Posted on: Apr 15 2019
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One of the trickiest parts about being in a car accident is that whiplash usually doesn’t show up for a few days. So, even if you leave the accident scene feeling fine, you may wake up in the next day or two in severe pain and discomfort. One common injury that we see patients for is called cervical spinal stenosis.
What’s Cervical Spinal Stenosis?
Your spine goes all the way from your tailbone up to the top of your neck. To keep your spine protected in your neck, it’s surrounded by a protective canal. If, the space within the spinal canal is reduced too much due to trauma or something else, it can cause neurologic deficits which can place a lot of compression on the spinal cord.
What Does It Feel Like?
When patients have too much compression on their spinal cord, they can experience a variety of symptoms including:
- Pain from the neck and back all the way down the arms and legs
- A loss of control and strength in arms and legs
- Permanent compression
What Is Treatment Like?
As long as it is diagnosed and treated early on, you should be able to reverse the side effects of cervical spinal stenosis. Typically, treatment can include a variety of things including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, steroids, a decompression procedure, or surgery in more serious cases.
If you have just been diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis, contact our Santa Rosa office to learn more about diagnosis and treatment. Call us at (707) 544-3400
Posted in: Cervical Spinal Stenosis
