burning pain in the back of my neck

[wendy111599]

for a long time now ive been getting a burning pain in the bac of my neck,and on some occations im not able to move my neck from side to side as its to painful

[wendy111599]

thank you very much for your help

[Dr Sharma]

Dear Wendy, welcome to medhelp forum. Burning pain in the back of the neck could be due to multiple causes. Soft tissue injury of ligaments, muscle and tendons from neck trauma or sudden jerky neck movements could be the culprit or repetitive neck strain over time could cause these. You can try applying ice packs, degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine could cause similar symptoms. The neurologist would ask for an MRI spine and decide the plan of management. This includes NSAIDs, physical therapy, acupressure, epidural injection of steroids and if severe symptoms, a surgical decompression would be required. The most concerning conditions are a viral or bacterial infection and inflammation of the meninges or the protective layers around the spinal cord. These can cause pain and stiffness at neck. This calls for immediate clinical assessment, blood workup to pick up the pathogen, CSF tap from the back to check any deranged biochemical parameters and immediate parenteral antibiotics and steroids along with supportive measures.
Consult a physician/ neurologist at the earliest.
You are welcome for any clarification. I wish you all the best with everything.

[ggreg]

You've either wrenched your neck muscles and they're all tightened up, or you have a "mechanical" problem in your cervical spine where you've hurt a disc, a vertebra, or a nerve is compromised somehow, OR a "stiff neck" sometimes indicates an infection is going on.  

Since a stiff neck can indicate an infection, and those things can really get out of hand in a big hurry, and since the symptom is so close to the brain it can therefore be serious, you should visit a general doc or clinic very soon and have them draw blood and make sure you don't have some virus or bacteria that needs treating.

If you've just wrenched some muscles, just feel of your neck and shoulders to see if they are hard, you can go on your own to a massage therapist and have them rub out your neck and shoulders for a few visits, see if that helps.  Also you can apply heat to the neck and take warm baths, too, it provides temporary relief.  You can also massage your own neck and shoulder muscles.  

If that doesn't help, then see your doctor, he may want to order an X-ray or scan to see what's going on in your neck, in which case he might refer you to a neurologist or orthopedist if he thinks the problem is more serious.  Depending on what might be wrong, one of those docs may simply order physical therapy and some medicines, or go all the way up to suggesting surgery even.