Depending on the CT scan your provider orders, you may need contrast materials, which can help highlight the problem areas in your neck.īecause CT scans can show the fine details of bones, blood vessels, and soft tissues in the same image, some providers prefer to order a CT scan rather than an MRI or traditional X-ray. Neck CT scanĪ CT scan of the neck produces cross-sectional pictures of your neck via X-rays that show detailed images of the bones, blood vessels, and soft tissues. You can also try over-the-counter pain relievers, applying heat or ice, or getting a massage to help ease your pain. Spine conditions, such as spinal stenosisĭepending on the reason behind your neck pain, your healthcare provider may prescribe muscle relaxants or recommend gentle stretching.Injuries, typically those resulting in whiplash.Chronic neck pain can be caused by a range of conditions, including but not limited to: You might experience acute neck pain from an injury or sleeping in an unusual position.Ĭhronic neck pain is pain that lasts longer than three months. There are many different causes of neck pain, such as a stiff neck, pinched nerve, muscle strains, poor posture, ruptured disk, or tension in the neck muscles.Īcute neck pain describes pain that comes on suddenly and very often goes away within a few days or weeks. Neck pain is defined as any discomfort in the structures of the cervical spine and can sometimes radiate down your arms or hands. Talk with your healthcare provider to see which scan is right for you. The imaging scans most often ordered for severe neck pain include a CT scan, an MRI, and an X-ray. If you are experiencing severe neck pain, your provider may want to order an imaging scan to see what’s going on inside your cervical spine. However, when you have severe neck pain that goes on for months or years, you may need more than a home remedy. It’s often helpful to align one plane at a time as in the example above.When Do You Need Imaging for Severe Neck Pain?įor most people, neck pain can last for a few hours or days, and can be treated at home. When setting up the procedure, the initial imaging can look very messy. A slight tilt in that plane alone will fix this misalignment.This means that your x-ray beam isn’t in a perfect frontal plane.The vertical lines are the posterior border of the lateral masses.You can see the green and yellow lines are mostly misaligned vertically.They aren’t aligned and hence the image isn’t a perfect lateral. Yellow outlines the same border on the other side. Green outlines the posterior border of the lateral mass on one side. Compare to a version with outlines along the posterior borders of the lateral masses. If this were the fluoro image it would generally be workable, but it isn’t perfect.Ĭ3 and C4 are the most obvious examples of slight misalignment.Troubleshooting Imagesīelow is an example from the cervical medial branch block guide outlining our targets. This minimizes motion of the c-arm so it’s easy to re-establish your lateral view if needed. Generally well aligned lateral view that’s sufficient for procedures Source: C-Arm PositioningĪfter obtaining a good lateral view simply rotate the c-arm in one axis to get the AP view. Line up the borders of the lateral mass/articulating column so you don’t see “double images” when the left and right are out of alignment.Most work (medial branch blocks, epidurals, radiofrequency ablations) is done in the lateral or oblique view (as opposed to an AP view, which is more important for lumbar/thoracic work).All of this can be taped up after positioning. Have patients wear a bouffant with hair tied inside.This pulls down some of the pannus out of the way.If the patient is in a prone position you can tape back pannus: apply tape near the base of the neck and pull down a long strip towards the low back (ie following the spine).Obese patients often have fat that limits access to the injection site or obscures the image.Try to have the shoulders pulled down slightly and/or curled forward to get them out of the way.Hunched shoulders can obscure the lower levels of the neck in a lateral view.Avoid flexion, except CESIs where you want the head flexed on the neck.A twisted neck can make lateral and AP views misaligned.Try to position the patient so the neck is in a “long”, neutral position.
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