Acute Wry Neck

You can’t move your neck without a lot of pain, it’s stuck in one position, you feel ill from the pain you may even have a headache or dizziness. This is an acute wry neck, which is characterised by muscle spasming, pain and joint stiffness. You don’t know how it happened or what you did. You have either woken up with this horrifically stuck neck or you turned your head a particular way and it instantly locked up.

So now what, what is happening and what should you do? Well, good news is generally the severe pain is short in duration, bad news is, it hurts!

There are two different pathologies responsible for a wry neck, it’s either due to facet joint irritation or due to a disc irritation in the cervical spine of the neck.

Signs and Symptoms include pain in the neck, arm and shoulder; joint stiffness and inability to move the neck in certain postures; excessive muscle spasming of the neck and shoulder muscles; pins and needles, or numbness in the arm and or hands/fingers; weakness of the arm (more so discogenic).

Treatment is straightforward as long as you get a correct diagnosis, as treatment varies between the two types of wry neck. In some cases, more so discogenic conditions, there will be a need for further investigations such as imaging, to make sure that your condition is stable. Therapy can include:

• massage

• joint mobilisations

• postural taping

• dry needling (more so at the shoulder)

• deep neck muscle strengthening

• maximising shoulder girdle strength to offload the facet joints and discs, hence reducing pressure

In some cases, more so discogenic conditions, there will be a need for further investigations such as imaging, to make sure that your condition is stable.

A facet joint wry neck can last anything from 7 - 14 days, whereas the residual effects of a discogenic wry neck can take longer to recover. Reaccurence of a wry neck is more common in cases that aren’t rehabilitated, and you can talk to your physiotherapist about prevention. In our clinical experience we find that a short duration of regular physio sessions produces the best results in a wry neck, especially if you want it to resolve quickly.

If you have questions about this topic, reach out to us via social media.

All the best

Sam and Andy