Question
Hi-I have a question regarding a neck injury. My husband was violently attacked by three men in our home. One of the men held my husband down while the other got him in a choke hold and literally yanked on his neck for about a minute. He said he wanted to kill him. He saw an ortho PA and he looked at his MRI and stated that he has an "exploded" disk from being choked. The MRI radiologist concluded:  There is a mild central spinal stenotic changes at C5-C6 and C6-C7 related to right paracentral sidc protrusion without extruded disc fragment.  Also, multilevel bilateral bony foraminal narrowing as described related to bony uncal hypertrophy and posterior facet encroachment.  
My husband had a injury in 2005 to his neck from lifting a piece of granite that one of his helpers let go of.  He had trigger point injections and they took away the pain.  He hadn't had problems with his neck again until this assault. Can you tell based on the 2 statements from the radiologist whether the findings are from blount trauma? We are awaiting to see a pain specialist for this problem - he is just waiting (3 mths out though). Do you think that trigger point injections might help again? He is having SEVERE headaches and had to go to a neurologist who now has him on Neurontin, Zanaflex but the headaches are still SEVERE (dabilitating). Does he need a specific type of specialist to be able to help him or can pain mgmt help?

Answer
good question. I would NOT suggest triggeer point injections. If he has bony foraminal narrowing bilaterally, that means he has pinching of the nerves due to a misalignment of his cervical (neck) spine. chiropractic is the best thing for that. the disc herniation is a permanent injury. This does not mean he will always have pain , but he will always have a disc herniation.
the central spinal stenosis is more serious and difficult to resolve. for that i recommend cold laser treatment to reduce inflammation drastically. if he does cold laser make sure he stays on top of his treatments and does it daily for about 10-15 treatments. then , he may want to get another mri in 6 months if its not resolved.
let me know if you need a name of someone good, that does cold laser and chiropractic under one roof.

Dr. David Kulla
Synergy Wellness
www.SynergyWellnessNy.com
chiropractor