What Is Cranio-Cervical Instability and How Is It Detected

Brain, head, and spine conditions are some of the most painful and bothersome issues a person may face. Anyone who has had a concussion or contusion could tell how it negatively impacted their lives. One horrible, headache-inducing ailment you may not have heard of is cranio-cervical instability. CCI involves a corruption of the ligamentous connections. People with CCI experience looseness where the skull meets the spine. In this article on cranio-cervical instability and how it is detected, we delve into the details of this condition so that you can better understand how to spot it in yourself and others. Talk to a doctor if you think you might have CCI.

What Is Cranio-Cervical Instability?

Also called the syndrome of occipitoatlantialaxial hypermobility, the condition cranio-cervical instability (CCI) can cause apathological deformations of the cerebellum, upper spinal cord, and brainstem. It is a structural instability of the craniocervical junction characterized by heightened mobility where the spine connects to the skull. People who suffer from CCI have stretched, ruptured, or weakened ligamentous connections. As a result, they experience a looseness where their neck connects to their head. Some people compare the feeling to being like a bobblehead. Normally, CCI evolves due to physical trauma like a car accident, congenital disorders like Down’s syndrome, or inflammatory diseases like arthritis. However, more recently, doctors have also reported seeing CCI in patients who live with connective tissue hereditary disorders like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Is CCI Serious and What Are Its Symptoms?

CCI may be a minor annoyance for some, but for others the symptoms can be very serious, even life-altering. A portion of people who have the condition are bed-bound. There are many symptoms attributed to the condition. Some of the most common symptoms include:

• Heavy headache: This is nothing like the occasional headaches most people encounter. A heavy headache entails a near-constant to constant headache in which the head feels like it weighs too much to be supported by the neck.
  
  
• Pressure headache: A pressure headache is sparked by a CSF flow impairment. It creates intracranial pressure that can be aggravated by “valsalva maneuvers” like laughing, coughing, sneezing, yawing, crying, or straining.
  
  
• Dysautonomia: This is a catch-all term for a number of disorders that involve an autonomic nervous system (ASN) that doesn’t work the way it should. People who suffer from dysautonomia grapple with:

o  Heat intolerance

o  Fainting

o  Polydipsia (intense thirst)

o  Chronic fatigue

o  Tachycardia (rapid heart)

o  Delayed gastric emptying

There are many other symptoms associated with craniocervical instability. These include:

• Pain in the neck
• Mixed or central sleep apnea
• Numbness or pain in the face
• Issues with balance
• Dizziness
• Vertigo
• Weak muscles
• Problems with vision
• Difficulty swallowing
• A reduced gag reflux
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Irregular eye movements (known as downward nystagmus
• Paralysis
• And more

If you sustain the above symptoms and fear that you may have CCI, you should speak to a doctor as soon as possible to get a diagnosis. Working with a doctor, you can run tests to determine if you have this awful affliction.