The neck is a complex structure, consisting of muscle, nerves, and vertebrae (bones). When chronic or severe pain arises in your neck, it can greatly affect your quality of life.
Specialists at the Pain Management Center at Cooper offer a full range of treatment options to relieve your pain so you can return to the activities you love.
Why Choose the Pain Management Center at Cooper for Neck Pain?
Our multidisciplinary team of specialists works together to create a personalized treatment plan for your neck pain. In addition to pain management doctors, this team may include doctors from several other specialties at Cooper University Health Care:
- Anesthesiologists
- Neurologists
- Palliative care specialists
- Psychologists
- Physiatrists
- Physical therapists
- Surgeons
By using the knowledge and skill of this diverse team, we are able to provide you with the best possible care. Together, these experts address the cause of your neck pain with a variety of treatments specific to your health needs.
Causes of Neck Pain
Neck pain has a variety of causes. Some of the conditions we commonly see include:
- Degenerative disc disease or arthritis: Wear and tear can occur on the discs that provide cushioning between the vertebrae in the neck.
- Cervical radiculopathy: The compression of a nerve root in the neck can cause pain and numbness.
- Herniated disc: The rupture of the discs that provide cushioning between your vertebrae can contribute to neck pain.
- Occipital neuralgia: Damage to the occipital nerve, which runs from the spine, through the back of the neck, and along the scalp, can lead to upper neck pain.
- Spinal stenosis: The narrowing of the spaces within the spine can put pressure on nerves in your neck.
- Spondylolisthesis: A stress fracture can cause a disc in the neck to shift out of place.
- Spondylosis: A small stress fracture in the discs of the spine can cause neck pain.
Treatments for Neck Pain
Our team of specialists provides a full range of procedures and approaches to manage neck pain. Some of these include:
- Pain Injections: Our doctors may suggest injections of steroids, with or without a small amount of anesthetic, to relieve pain and inflammation in nerves and joints in the neck.
- Nerve blocks: For a nerve block, doctors inject a local anesthetic with a medication that reduces inflammation and temporarily numbs the nerve causing pain. When the medication wears off, the nerve no longer transmits pain messages to the brain.
- Radiofrequency ablation: This procedure involves using probes to apply heat to nerves in the neck. The heat destroys the nerves so they no longer transmit pain signals to your brain.
- Spinal cord stimulation: Our doctors may recommend spinal cord stimulation to treat chronic neck pain. A doctor surgically places a small electrical device, or electrode, to stimulate the area of the spinal cord associated with neck pain. This electrode delivers electrical pulses that feel like mild tingling to the spinal cord, replacing the sensation of pain. You control when the nerve is stimulated using a remote-control device.
- Physical therapy: Exercises to strengthen and improve flexibility in the neck can help to relieve pain.
Our pain management specialists excel at identifying and treating many types of pain. Read more about our approaches to pain management.
Contact Us
To learn more about the Pain Management Center at Cooper or to schedule an appointment, please call 856.963.6770.
Refer a Patient
Referring physicians are welcome to call us any time at 856.963.6770 with questions or concerns about a shared patient or to refer a patient to our care. Learn more about pain management referrals.