Neck pain

 Hi, 

Today I'm going to talk about the neck pain is caused by soft tissue injury.

Neck pain has an annual prevalence rate exceeding 30% among adults in the US; nearly 50% of individuals will continue to experience some degree of chronic neck pain or frequent occurrences. Among adults, 20% to 70% will experience neck pain that interferes with their daily activities during their lifetime.

Today, many people even children are working with computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone for long hours in the same posture. This is stress strain can injure the soft tissue. 

Here is a good case.

The patient works with laptop and smartphone for years in the poor posture. The patient is a female, 40 yrs. She has had neck pain all the time but recently the pain was worse. Her complaint was neck pain being worse when bending her neck forward, especially her left side, and the right side of the neck pain going down to her shoulder not arm, the pain was sharp but no tingling, numbness. 

The blue mark in the picture is an adhesive scar on Semispinalis capitis muscle.

The blue mark in the picture is an adhesive scar on Semispinalis capitis muscle

First visit, I started observing her neck. Her cervical spine was kyphosis, which means cervical spine curves outward, because she worked with laptop in the bending her neck posture for long hours every days. And I palpated her neck gently. And I discovered a adhesive scar on the left side of Semispinalis capitis muscle, the scar direction was perpendicularly to the cervical spine C4. And continually, I observed the right side of her neck, I found a adhesive scar on the right side of the same muscle, Semispinalis capitis muscle, but this scar was horizontally to the cervical spine between C2-C3. And I discovered an another adhesive scar on the ligamentum nuchae which running over the cervical spines from C1 to C7. All theses scars were very clear and hearing click sound loudly when palpating, but need to focus on finding because this area is small. 

I started treatment to separate the adhesive scar by hands from healthy soft tissue.

After 10 sessions, the patient felt much better. No more pain when she bends her neck forward. She continues to come for treatment and prevention injury. 

Low back pain going down to leg

Today I'm going to share a typical soft tissue injury of the low back pain.

The patient is male, who was 34 yrs, when he came to see me first time.

His low back pain was right side, I remembered, was very severe, and the pain was down to the leg. His main complaint was, of corse, low back pain, he was unable to sit, stand, and walk no more than 5 minutes, because the sharp pain from low back going down to the leg. And once a year he had a spasm on his back. 

Here is the patient's story of his low back. 

When he was about 8th grade, he played a wrestling with his friend, at the time, he fell very hard on his back to ground and he was ok, felt sore. Next day, he felt normal, fine. Since then, as he grows up, he started feeling achy on his low back, so when he was 17-19 yrs, he went an acupuncture clinic, the Dr said his kidney function is weak, so low back feels sore and weak. Therefore, he had acupuncture treatment and took many oriental medicine but they didn't help his low back much. After 20 yrs, he had more pain and more often. Before his first visit, about six months ago, one day morning, when he got out of the bed, he had a bad spasm on his low back. He couldn't move his body at all for a couple of days. Every time he sneezing, the right side low back was so painful. The pain was getting worse, it started going down to the right leg. He couldn't sit, walk, stand no more than 5 minutes, he was only able to lie down any position. He saw many acupuncturists, chiropractors, neurologists but his low back wasn't better. The neurologist said I had disc herniation between L5-S1. He was referred by his friend to me.

His first visit, his low back muscles were so tight. Right side was bigger then left. I used my palm to touch erector spinae muscle to relax. I felt the right side of thoracolumbar fascia was thick and the erector muscle was still spasm. Through careful examination, I found an adhesive scar on the right side of thoracolumbar fascia (anterior layer) which is running parallel to the spine (L3 Transverse process). This scar tissue was about 1.5 inch. I started using my thumb to relieve the pain, spasm and inflammation over the L3 transverse process, and then started separating the adhesion from the healthy soft tissue. After 5 months of treatment, the patient had no more pain on low back as well as leg. He's lived back to normal life without any pain so far. 

The blue mark is the original injury of the thoracolumbar fascia (anterior layer) 

This was the injury of the thoracolumbar fascia at the L3 transverse process, which is longer the the other transverse processes, so it gets to injury easier such as external force causing the fascia to tear. 

Numbness on the leg with or without hip pain

I'd like to tell readers a very good case of soft tissue injury.

This patient is middle of 30 yrs, first day, the patient came to see me for the low back. The patient had health history that had herniotomy in 2001, 2003 and appendectomy in 2011. The patient got a MRI diagnosed right low back disc herniation 20 years ago. 

The patient drove long hours for trip, and one day morning in the hotel after waking up, suddenly the left front thigh was numb. This happened in April, 2022. The numbness was getting worse, when laying down on back during sleeping, standing especially peeing. This bothers the patient's routing life, and staring seeing doctors, physical therapists, neurologists but didn't get any results. They thought low back disc herniation related.

First visit, the patient who was referred by the patient's doctor, who was my patient, too, told me there was no low back and hip pain at all. I started finding scars on the patient's leg muscles which are Tensor fasciae latae muscle and Rectus femoris muscle. But there was no scars. I, therefore, kept asking about the patient's life style and work. So I figure out what caused this. The patient sat down long ours to work for years. Again, I started finding any scars on the patient's low back and hip, but there was no clue on low back. However I found big scar which already formed to adhesion on the Gluteus maximus muscle, this scar tissue adhered to Superior clunial nerves which causes the numbness on the thigh. Then the patient felt a lot less numbness on the thigh after one session. And no more issue so far.

Blue marked in the picture is the scar tissue on the Gluteus maximus which is adhered  Superior clunial nerves cause numbness on the leg

Like this case, if we try to treat with only symptoms without understanding the patient's life style and histories, it is very difficult to find out the cause of this case. The patient told me would have a surgery if I couldn't resolve this, I was the patient's last trial. 

How to treat soft tissue injury, that's the question and the readers want to know. 

Using palpation technique by hands to find a scar for target diagnosis otherwise it is 'shooting in the dark'

It's not easy to explain in words, but this is my challenge and why I blog. So I hope more people know and understand about soft tissue injury. 

About Dr. Myoung Kim

Dr. Kim was born in South Korea, 1973 and grew up in South Korea.

He, after graduated high school, went to Shanghai Traditional Oriental Medicine University in China from 1993 to 1999

He completed mandatory military service from 2000 to 2002 in South Korea.

He moved to Los Angeles, CA, US in 2005. 

He got a licensed acupuncturist in CA in 2007.

He studied and researched soft tissue injury and treatment.

He has practiced his office in the Beverly Hills, California since 2008.