By Sean Shuttleworth BSc (hons) MCSP – Senior physiotherapist at Burton Physio Group.

Neck pain is a common complaint by patients¹ and is the fourth highest cause of disability with annual prevalence rates of over 30%². Contrary to popular belief it is unlikely to be linked to phone use or any particular posture. However, one of the regularly occurring questions is should I be worried. First and foremost, this blog is not intended to replace assessment by a suitably qualified practitioner but to give you an idea of what concerning features they might be looking for. If you have neck pain, especially with an unknown cause, I would recommend review by a competent qualified professional.

If it is an acute onset, such as a sports injury or car accident, then we would start with risk factors, such as the force of the accident, known diagnosis of osteoporosis, prolonged steroid use and age; more than 50 for women, 65 for men. Moving on to symptoms, high levels of pain, bony tenderness and significant reduction in movement would raise suspicion enough to refer for imaging to rule out any bony injuries.

When the symptoms have been going on for a longer period of time there are different criteria depending on the suspected cause. For concerns of cancer, the biggest factor would be a previous cancer, symptomatically we are looking for pain at night, fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss, feeling unwell or high levels of pain. These symptoms also raise the suspicion of infection.

Concerns for blood flow, or cervical artery dysfunction are characterised by changes to speech, swallowing, vision, dizziness. Often symptoms that people would attribute to a stroke without the immediate onset. This condition results due to a reduction in blood flow through the neck heading up to the brain.

Lastly, we would look to rule out any compression of the spinal cord. You may be asked if you have any pins and needles, numbness, difficulty with dropping things or balance.

Whilst this isn’t an exhaustive list, it is important that if you present with any of these symptoms alongside your neck pain that you get reviewed by a qualified, appropriate professional. A thorough assessment can be completed with clinical testing and if needed onward referral for imaging or diagnostic testing.

Most neck pain is not a cause for concern and without oversimplifying the causes of pain can often be attributed to soft tissue injury, irritation, overuse, environmental, or habitual factors. Most episodes will resolve in a few weeks to months². If you are suffering from neck pain, please feel to reach out and we will endeavour to help.

• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00586-004-0864-4
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025619614008337
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11618059/

If you have Neck pain, please contact Burton Physio Group in Derby or Burton to see if we can help you.