Cl. Levitz et al., THE PATHOMECHANICS OF CHRONIC, RECURRENT CERVICAL NERVE ROOT NEURAPRAXIA - THE CHRONIC BURNER SYNDROME, American journal of sports medicine, 25(1), 1997, pp. 73-76
This study defined chronic recurrent cervical nerve root neurapraxia,
the chronic burner syndrome, characterized the clinical findings, and
described the responsible pathomechanics. We studied a subset of 55 at
hletes (mean age, 22 years) for evaluation of recurrent burners. Eleve
n subjects were professional athletes. The mechanism of injury was ext
ension combined with ipsilateral-lateral deviation in 46 patients (83%
). Spurling's sign was positive in 39 patients (70%). Twenty-nine pati
ents (53%) had developmentally narrowed cervical canals, and 48 patien
ts (87%) had evidence of disk disease by magnetic resonance imaging. T
he disk disease was in the form of a disk bulge, disk protrusion, or a
frank disk herniation deforming the cord. Fifty-one patients (93%) ha
d disk disease or narrowing of the intervertebral foramina secondary t
o degenerative disk disease. Although burners may be the result of a b
rachial plexus stretch injury in high school and collegiate football p
layers seen with acute symptoms, nerve root compression in the interve
rtebral foramina secondary to disk disease is a more common cause in c
ollegiate and professional players who have recurrent or chronic burne
r syndromes. There is a high incidence of cervical canal stenosis in f
ootball players with recurrent burner syndrome. The combination of dis
k disease and cervical spinal canal stenosis may lead to an alteration
in normal cervical spine mechanics that may make these athletes more
prone to chronic burner syndromes.