If you have back and neck pain, you know firsthand, it can keep you from enjoying everyday activities. Your pain may be constant or sporadic, sharp or a dull ache or radiate down your arms and legs. No matter what type of pain you have, most back or neck pain can be relieved with non-surgical treatments within a few weeks or months. Riverside doctors, nurses and physical therapists work as a team to provide comprehensive care from initial consultation to diagnosis and treatment.
When more conservative treatments haven’t worked and the pain is impacting the quality of your life, surgery may be the best answer. The neurosurgeons at Riverside combine compassion with expertise in helping you decide if surgery is the right approach for you.
To understand the cause of your back or neck pain or condition, it is helpful to understand how the spine is constructed.
About your spine
Your spine is a series of individual bones called vertebrae that are separated by disks.
The vertebrae are essentially short hollow tubes. Running through these tubes is a bundle of nerves called the spinal cord.
Disks sit between the vertebrae. Made up of a tire-like outer band and a gel-like inner substance, your disks act as shock absorbers, helping to hold the vertebrae together and providing additional protection for your spinal cord.
Nerves carrying messages to and from your arms and legs, enter and exit through gaps in the vertebrae. Your spine also has facet joints, which help movement and flexibility.
Muscles, tendons and ligaments help hold the spine upright so that most of the weight of your upper body is transferred through the spine to your hips and legs.
Your spine is divided into regions each with a different shape of vertebrae. The four regions are:
- Neck or cervical spine
- Chest or thoracic vertebrae
- Lower back or lumbar vertebrae
- Hip region or tail bone composed of fused vertebrae in the sacrum and coccyx
See, Anatomy of the spine (Image)
Conditions
Here are some of the most common back and neck diseases and conditions:
Back Pain
Neck Pain
Spine Conditions and Diseases
