Medical Case Study

Medical Case Study

Disease Process

Cervicalgia is neck pain that occurs toward the rear or the side of the cervical vertebrae. It generally is felt as discomfort or a sharp pain in the upper back, neck or shoulders. The term cervicalgia covers a broad range of neck pain causes, including whiplash, muscle strain, ligament sprain, and inflammation of the neck joints. It also could be caused by a number of abnormalities in the region of the cervical vertebrae, including a bulging disc, a pinched nerve, narrowing of the spinal canal (stenosis), spinal arthritis or degenerative disc disease (Chow, 2006).

Patient Background information

The case discusses about a person name Frank Thomas who is thirty-nine years old male. The disease that was diagnosed to him is named Cervicalgia. This was occurred on the occurrence of the accident which happened on 3-27-12.

Patient Social History

Frank is married since last twenty years and has two children. He lives in Odessa in one level single family. He is working as a manager at Red Lobster. His hobbies include fishing, cooking, riding bikes etc.

Patient Treatment And Therapies

Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a procedure used to treat neck problems such as cervical radiculopathy, disc herniations, fractures, and spinal instability. In this procedure, the surgeon enters the neck from the front (the anterior region) and removes a spinal disc (discectomy). The vertebrae above and below the disc are then held in place with bone graft and sometimes metal hardware. The goal is to help the bones to grow together into one solid bone. This is known as fusion. The medical term for fusion is arthrodesis (Cassidy, 2004).

MRI Cervicalgia

Any activity that places a significant amount of pressure on the neck can cause cervicalgia. For instance, many people complain about neck pain immediately upon awakening in the mornings, which may be due to sleeping in positions that fail to adequately support the neck. Common complaints may also come after sitting in the same position for an extended period of time since bad posture while sitting and standing can cause neck pain.

A patient presenting neck-related symptoms to a medical professional will be sent for diagnostic tests for an accurate diagnosis (Chiu, 2005). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans are commonly used to diagnose neck problems. It is important for people not to self-diagnose cervicalgia, as this type of pain could indicate a serious health problem. Neck pain accompanied by a fever, chill, nausea, and a headache could all be symptoms of meningitis.

Neural Foraminal Stenosis

Accurate diagnosis of neural foraminal stenosis is very important to treat the condition effectively. Imaging studies such as CT scan and MRI have become invaluable in the diagnosis.

Treatment depends upon the severity of the symptoms and the level of disability caused. The first approach in management is non-surgical that include exercise, activity modification, painkillers and epidural injections.

Non-Surgical Treatment: Neural foraminal stenosis often causes symptoms that may restrict a patient's activities. The aim of non-surgical management is to relieve the symptoms, maintain the activity level ...