Q: I have a bone growth in the neck with swelling and tremendous pain. There is pain in my head and giddiness too. I had an x-ray, which showed bone growth in the neck & spine pressing my nerves. The doctor diagnosed it as bone spurs but the medication didn't help. The growth is on the spine also. Could it be a tumour?

A:Your symptom of pain in the neck along with pain in the head and giddiness can be because of cervical spondylosis. Cervical spondylosis is a condition, which is actually not a disease but the consequence of wear and tear in the joints of our spine in the neck region. The term cervical refers to the neck. The term spondylosis refers to degenerative bone formation in the spine. This formation can pinch nerves causing pain or it may pinch the vessels that supply blood to cause giddiness. This is usually common in patients over 35 years but not all are symptomatic. Having said that if we get X-rays of 10 people on the street who have no complains but who are over 35 years the radiological report in all these cases would be cervical spondylosis. Therefore, getting an X-ray in a patient of symptoms like yours has no meaning other than excluding other causes of pain and giddiness. Again you would not make diagnosis of spondylosis until you have excluded all other causes of pain. Therefore, a diagnosis of cervical spondylosis as a cause should be a clinical diagnosis and not based on the X-ray report of spondylosis. The bone growth that is seen has nothing to do with a tumorous growth.