The patient's attitude in these types of processes is very important. The good spirit to overcome the symptoms and the patient's involvement in the recovery is a very important point to achieving rapid clinical improvement.
When there are no serious injuries such as additional dislocations or cervical fractures, rest should be avoided or not exceed two days. Generally, the use of neck braces does more harm than good, since immobilization of the neck muscles can lead to wasting failure. We must try to lead a normal life, maintain the activities that we have been doing regularly, and gradually recover neck mobility.
If you have cervical or muscle contractures, the medical treatment used is with anti-inflammatories - analgesics and muscle relaxants. Likewise, the local heat acts by relaxing the muscles and increasing blood injection by vasodilation, helping to eliminate substances accumulated by soft tissue injuries such as histamine and prostaglandins. From the first week we can combine active progressive mobility exercises with physical rehabilitation.
If the process evolves into vertigo or dizziness, it may be necessary to use antivertigo drugs. If this situation continues, evaluation by the otorhinolaryngologist and/or neurologist is important to diagnose or rule out alterations that may have occurred in the vestibular system or in the nervous system.
Antineuritic drugs are only used in case of compression of a peripheral nerve, as can happen due to a cervical hernia that has also occurred in the context of a cervical sprain. These are clinical pictures that evolve with cervicobrachialgia, that is, neck pain and irradiation of pain through the arm or hand, accompanied by neuropathic alterations such as paresthesias, muscle atrophies or loss of strength.
The prolongation of the symptoms and the lack of progressive improvement sometimes lead to discouragement and depression in the patient, making psychological and/or psychiatric treatment necessary.
Come to our spine clinic in Madrid to receive the most innovative techniques in cervical sprain treatments.