Pain in the spine in the context of discopathy and degenerative changes, with particular attention to post-traumatic...

Pain of the cervical spine is either directly or indirectly dependent on degenerative changes in the cervical dinks. Traumatic injury to the cervical spine may result in a cervical syndrome some years later as a result of degenerative changes. Cervical disk protrusuion or degenerative changes can be compared to a similar condition which occurs in the lumbar spine. Differential diagnosis in cases with only local cervical syndrome is difficult. In cases with brachialgia due to disk protrusion or exostosis of the uncinate processes (with segmental syndromes), careful clinical examination is very helpful in diagnosis. Despite the various causes for cervical disk syndromes, the conservative treatment is quite uniform. In cases where results of conservative treatment are non satisfactional, surgery should be disenssed. In cases with massive neurologic deficits, operation is necessary. Authors describe new spine graft "Tibone" for anterior interbody cervical fusion.