What Causes Discomfort Around Neck Area?

Posted on Tue, 27 Jan 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 Answered on

Thu, 12 Feb 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : I have a lot of discomfort in my neck area. My GP sent me for xrays and than an xray which showed a widening of the atlantoaxial distance at c1/2 of 5mm. My question is will this require surgery and if so what can they do.

Answered by Dr. Suresh Heijebu (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Surgery is the likely treatment of choice in your case

Detailed Answer:
Hi Mam.

I understand your query and concern.

A distance greater than 3 mm usually indicates Atlantoaxial instability/AAI with possible injury to transverse cervical ligament.

In most cases the injury is purely ligamentous and is unlikely to heal.

Therefore these injuries are always treated through surgery with posterior C1-C2 FUSION.

Posterior cervical spinal fusion can successfully treat all symptomatic cases in AAI with ligamentous injury.

If CT scan revealed a bony avulsion injury as a source of failure,a trial of halo bracing(non surgical) may be tried.

Hence I advise you to have a Confirmatory CT scan of the area before validating the above results.

Post your further queries,if any.
Thank you.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Bhagyalaxmi Nalaparaju