Chronic Neck Pain and Respiratory Dysfunction: A Connection?

Do patients with neck pain have a disturbance of respiration? To address this question, researchers used spirometry in 12 patients with chronic neck pain and 12 controls, measuring forced vital capacity, peak expiratory flow, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced expiratory ratio, forced expiratory flow, and maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV). The maximal inspiratory pressure (Pi_max) and maximal expiratory pressure (Pe_max) were recorded.

MVV, Pi_max,and Pe_max were reduced in the patients with neck pain compared with the controls. The authors concluded that these abnormal findings indicated weakness of the inspiratory and expiratory muscles, implying a connection between neck pathology and respiratory muscles.