Lumber Degenerative Disk Disease

As humans age, our minds age as well as our body… Really?? Ok, so my point is when our bodies change the our weight distribution on our spine does too. So it only makes sense that many Americans, especially with our obesity percentages *don’t even get me started*, end up with lower back pain. This lower back pain can very easily develop, or stem from, lumbar degenerative disk disease, also known as LDDD. Did you know that the anterior portion of your lumbar spine bears over 90% of the weight we put on the spine? It’s pretty much the Hercules of our body. Therefore, the intevertebral discs act as primary cushions to provide relief and stability to this area.
This pathology has three main stages. The first stage shows small tears around the outer annulus which can be accompanied end plate separation which can then lead to blood supply interruption. These changes could be a result of harmful repetitive movements. The second phase is also known as the unstable phase. This phase is characteristic of loss of disc space height. Herniated disks fit in this category. The third phase is basically just a more intense version of the first two stages. There is further disk space narrowing , further endplate destruction. Which means the pain is greater in this phase as well.
Nearly 13 million of doctors’ visits a year are related to lower back pain. The cause of this pathology is unknown. Treatment that does not include surgical intervention include physical rehabilitation, relative rest, and education. Surgery includes fusions and disk arthroplasty.

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Dissections in the carotid artery

Carotid Artery Dissection
So I feel like I’m preaching to the choir when I talk about this subject, so I will try and throw in a few fun facts for you. ;) Dissection occurs when there is an initial tear in the intima of the vessel. Which is…the innermost lining of the vessel! From this dissection, stenosis or complete occlusions can very easily occur because there is blood flowing out of the inner AND the outer layers of the vessel. Oh and it gets better. From there, those nasty little occlusions can then lead to production of emboli, which can then shower into the brain and cause an ischemic stroke. Oh and I forgot to mention that complete occlusion can lead to ischemia in the carotid itself. But when that happens the brain is like ok, I can deal and circulates in other areas for the weaker area. It’s the beauty of a bilateral circulation system.
There are two types of carotid artery dissection: spontaneous and traumatic. Spontaneous occurs in about 3 cases out of 100,000. In those with spontaneous dissection cases, some were associated with hereditary connective tissue disorder, or a history of stroke. But these incidences vary. The traumatic side of it is when the neck is severely injured. I wonder how much head banging that would take. Good thing I don’t act like I can do it. Anyway, about .67% of injuries of people in vehicle accidents end up having some kind of carotid injury AND from these 76% had dissections.
Some signs and symptoms of this pathology are neck pain, decreased pupil size, vision loss, and stroke.
Treatments for dissections include of course the thrombolytic medications if an occlusion occurs, observation, or stent placement. From what I gather though, these are treatments assuming that there was some sort of outcome from a dissection.

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Tuberculosis!!!! Of the Neck!!!

Ok, so we all have heard of this pathology, considering with get shots for this more often than most of us would like. But TB of the neck? So, I’m going to refer to this pathology by its other name considering TB of the neck is just long, so the other name that it’s known for is called

‘Scrofula’. That’s just more fun to say anyway.
So basically what it is is an infection of the lymph nodes in the neck. About half of these patients are known as ‘immunocompromised’. Currently it affects about 5% of the population said to have some form of tuberculosis.

Signs and symptoms to look for with scrofula are chronic, painless abscesses on the neck. They are also known as ‘cold abscesses because they are do not take a reddish color or even the color of skin, but have a bluish, purple tint. This pathology can also cause fever, chills, and weight loss in almost half of these patients. As the lump gets bigger the skin might stretch to its max and bust open causing an open wound. Diagnosis is done by needle biopsies.

So what is there to do about it? Well, surgery doesn’t usually work out to well for the fact that in that kind of environment it is very easy to spread that infection, so the best way to fight it is antibiotics. With this kind of treatment, recovery is pretty much 100%!
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