Causes of neck or cervical work injury can be either a traumatic injury or from job duties over time. McCormick Law Office in Milwaukee represents injured workers in workers compensation claims. Recently the Wisconsin legislature passed laws that will harm the interests of employees across our state. Specifically, the budget bill contains radical changes to the Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Division that will hurt not only employees but employers and insurance companies as well by making the process more difficult to navigate. Unfortunately, the proponents of the changes either do not understand their effect or worse. This has nothing to do with policy. It will not make Wisconsin more competitive for business or create jobs. It is ideology pure and simple, as evidenced by the changes coming from ALEC not any Wisconsin policy makers. At this point, the legislature has not proposed substantive changes in workers compensation benefits. We will continue to fight for workers rights whatever they come up with.
Additional medical causes of neck pain and how they can be the source of a workers compensation claim.
Muscle Strain
People with minor neck pain or stiffness are often told they have a muscle strain. However, unless there was a severe injury to the neck, the muscles probably haven’t been pulled or injured. Instead, the problem may be coming from irritation or injury in other spine tissues, such as the disc or ligaments. When this happens, the neck muscles may go into spasm to help support and protect the sore area. Workers with neck soft tissue strain often return to work without restrictions.
Mechanical Neck Pain
Mechanical neck pain is caused by wear and tear in the neck from job duties. Often degenerating discs starts to collapse, the space between the vertebrae narrows, and the facet joints may become inflamed. The pain is typically felt in the neck, but it may spread from the neck into the upper back or to the outside of the shoulder. Mechanical neck pain differs from neurogenic neck pain because pressure on a spinal nerve is not the primary source of the pain.
Spinal Stenosis
Stenosis means something is closing in. Spinal stenosis refers to a condition in which the spinal cord is closed in, or compressed, inside the tube of the spinal canal. Spinal stenosis may be caused by degenerative changes, such as bone spurs pushing against the spinal cord within the spinal canal. However, stenosis can also develop when a person of any age has a disc herniation that pushes against the spinal canal. When the spinal cord is squeezed in the neck, doctors call the condition cervical myelopathy.
We will have one more blog on causes of neck or cervical work injury.
