I saw a 60 year old artist who had been complaining of neck pain for 2 months. The pain began without any accident and had been getting worse. He had problems moving his neck, especially extending it backwards, and found that wearing a soft collar prevented movement and diminished his pain.  The only way he could exercise on his stationary bike was to use the collar.  He was taking anti-inflammatory medication but it wasn’t helping.

When I looked at him his shoulders were raised and the left  shoulder was positioned forward of the right.  I asked him to relax his shoulders and when they appeared “normal” he said it felt unnatural.  When I examined his muscles with the MPDD I found that 6 muscles were painful (infraspinatus, pectoralis minor, levator scapula, serratus anterior and anterior and medial scalenes).  I use a Ketamine based cream to prove that the muscles I identify are the ones causing the pain and stiffness and when I put it on his pain and stiffness were gone.

Neck pain is usually caused by muscles but we do not usually look for specific muscles that are the source of the pain and more often attribute the pain to changes that are seen on an x-ray or with a MRI.  Posture can strain muscles as it did with my patient. Another problem that we encountered in the history was that he spends hours in front of a computer monitor that is placed too high and therefore obliges him to look up a the screen-the proper ergonomic position is to look at he screen straight head or at a 15 degree downward angle.
 
He will be studying his posture in front of a mirror and will see how he does without the collar or anti-inflammatory meds before we consider any other treatment. Do you have neck pain that isn’t going away or recurs?

May 21, 2010 - 6:02am — Posted by Dr. Norman Marcus