Possibly a case report...good idea. Bear with me on the logic here and chime in with your thoughts.
The uncovertebral joint is frequently involved in hypertrophic compression arthrosis with hypertrophy of the joint not uncommonly leading to foraminal stenosis. When the lumbar disc space collapses in DDD, the biomechanical shift of weight first transfers to the annulus fibrosis, then after annular degeneration transfers load to the z-joints. The resultant hypertrophy leads to arthropathy of the joints plus foraminal stenosis. However in the cervical spine, the z-joints are not the ultimate load bearing structure: the uncovertebral joint bears the load after cervical disc degeneration. This explains why the cervical facet joints rarely hypertrophy and almost never cause cervical foraminal stenosis. The load bearing equivalent to the lumbar z-joint is the cervical uncovertebral joint, and may be subject to the same painful arthropathies, albeit with somewhat different intra-articular cartilage and synovium constructs. The innervation to the joint is ???? Possibly sympathetic from the nearby sympathetic chain, but what about somatic? Is there any anterior somatic equivalent to the medial branch?
