Excerpt: Cervical Disc Disease often presents with a variety of symptoms which may or may not be directly related a specific disc level or adjacent discs. This disorder is differentiated from many similar syndromes and conditions including: thoracic outlet, brachial plexopathies, cervical spondylosis, fibromyalgia, Parsonage Turner's syndrome, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Paget’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, or psoriatic arthritis. Signs and symptoms may be blurred during the acute phase and advanced imaging may be the best diagnostic tool as the condition evolves. Prognosis and outcome expectations become difficult due to the poor predictive nature of the neurologic findings. Risk of treatment versus non-treatment must be considered against the acute status of the patient given the natural course of the disorder. It is clear that most studies find little etiology with neck pain and severity or advancement of neurologic signs, and do not necessarily correlate with worsened prognosis as do higher severity of pain and multiple episodic occurrences.

 

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