A common question from patients referred to a spine specialist for balance and coordination problems is, “My neck isn’t hurting; how is it affecting my balance?”
This issue may come with the recent use of a cane or other assistive walking device. Other symptoms may include clumsiness with the hands, dropping of objects, handwriting changes, or fine motor dysfunction. These all can be due to a condition called cervical myelopathy—compression of the spinal cord resulting in various functional disturbances.
You may have received treatment already for your condition. Your next question might be, “How is my spinal cord being compressed?” This can be determined with a thorough workup that includes a plain film X-ray, CT scan, or MRI of the cervical spine.
This imaging may reveal spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal) due to bone spurring or other arthritic changes, or herniated discs compressing on the spinal cord. Read the full article here.