Abstract
Cervical pain is described as the perception of pain in the region defined as below the superior nuchal line, between the lateral margins of the neck and above the level of the T1 spinous process (Merskey & Bogduk, 1994). Given the co-location of the neck with the head and upper extremities, pathologic conditions in the cervical spine may result in pain in other sites such as the jaw, head, shoulder, arms and upper back. For example, pain arising from the upper cervical zygapophyseal (or “facet”) joints tends to be perceived as headache in the suboccipital region (Cooper, Bailey, & Bogduk, 2007), and cervical radicular pain is perceived as upper extremity pain (Bogduk, 2011a). Thus, for the purposes of this chapter, the authors will focus on clinical states in which the patient’s perception of pain lies within the anatomic bounds of the neck. Of course, not all painful disorders involving the neck are constrained to this region; they may result in the perception of pain in other discrete anatomic sites or even generalized throughout the body. Therefore, such disorders will also be addressed insofar as they also result in the perception of pain in the neck.
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Alexander, J.C., Rana, H., Epps, W. (2014). Cervical Pain. In: Gatchel, R., Schultz, I. (eds) Handbook of Musculoskeletal Pain and Disability Disorders in the Workplace. Handbooks in Health, Work, and Disability. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0612-3_3
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