Random Neck

Question 1

what are some causes of cervical pain?

Answer 1

• inflamed lymph nodes
• muscle strain
• protruding IV discs

Question 2

what causes most chronic cervical pain?

Answer 2

• bony abnormalities - cervical osteoarthritis

- trauma

Question 3

what can fractures and dislocations of the cervical vertebra cause?

Answer 3

injure spinal cord and/or vertebral arteries and sympathetic plexuses passing through transverse foramina

Question 4

what fractures occur in people who are manually strangled by compression of the throat?

Answer 4

fracture of the hyoid or of the styloid process of the temporal bone

Question 5

what can fracture of the hyoid result in?

Answer 5

difficulty swallowing and maintaining separation of alimentary and respiratory tracts -> can cause aspiration pneumonia

Question 6

what does paralysis of the platysma cause?

Answer 6

causes skin to fall away from neck in slack folds

Question 7

what happens if surgeons don’t carefully suture the skin and edges of platysma?

Answer 7

skin wound will be distracted (pulled in diff directions) by the contracting platysma

Question 8

what contains the spread of abscesses/infections in the neck?

Answer 8

investing layer of deep cervical fascia

Question 9

if you have infection in each of these places, where will it spread:

1. b/w investing and muscular part of pretracheal
2. b/w investing and visceral part of pretracheal
3. posterior to prevertebral layer

Answer 9

1. just to superior edge of manubrium
2. into thoracic cavity anterior to pericardium
3. laterally - swelling posterior to SCM or go through the prevertebral fascia into retropharyngeal space

Question 10

what can a retropharyngeal abscess cause?

Answer 10

dysphagia and dysarthria (difficulty speaking)

Question 11

what is pneumomediastinum?

Answer 11

air from a ruptured trachea, bronchus, or esophagus - can pass superiorly into neck

Question 12

cervicothoracic ganglion block

Answer 12

• blocks transmission of stimuli through the cervical and superior thoracic ganglia
• relieves vascular spasms involving brain and upper limb

Question 13

what does a lesion of a cervical sympathetic trunk cause?

Answer 13

horner’s syndrome

Question 14

describe horner’s syndrome

Answer 14

1. miosis (constriction of pupil from paralysis of dilator pupillae)
2. ptosis (drooping of superior eyelid from paralysis of tarsal mm)
3. enophthalmos (sinking in of eye from paralysis of smooth mm in floor of orbit)
4. anhydrosis (vasodilation and absence of sweating on face/neck from lack of sym nerve supply to vessels/glands)

Question 15

what is removed in radical neck dissections?

Answer 15

• deep cervical lymph nodes and tissues around them

- most cutaneous branches of cervical plexus

Question 16

why are cervical nodes often referred to as cervical sentinel lymph nodes?

Answer 16

their enlargement is often the first clue to cancer in the thorax and abdomen