Cervical Kyphosis

Quick answer: Cervical kyphosis is when the neck loses its natural inward curve and instead curves forward. A neck that has lost its curve and straightened is often called military neck.

Also called: reversed cervical curve, kyphotic neck.

What causes cervical kyphosis?

Common contributors include long hours with the head forward over screens, a rounded upper back that pushes the head forward, and age-related changes in the discs of the neck. Less often it follows an injury or neck surgery, or is present from birth.

How is it different from military neck?

Military neck usually describes a neck that has straightened, losing its normal curve. Cervical kyphosis goes a step further, with the curve reversed. The two are closely related, and a doctor confirms either one with an X-ray.

When should I see a doctor?

See a physician if you have neck pain with numbness, tingling or weakness in your arms, trouble with balance or coordination, or pain after an injury.

Why does kyphosis mean something different in the neck?

This is the part that confuses almost everyone, and it is worth getting straight. Kyphosis is the name for an outward curve, and where that curve belongs depends on the region. Your upper back is supposed to be kyphotic. Your neck is supposed to curve the other way — inward, a lordosis.

Region	The normal curve	So “kyphosis” here means
Upper back (thoracic)	Kyphosis — curves outward	Too much of the normal curve. See hyperkyphosis
Neck (cervical)	Lordosis — curves inward	The normal curve has gone, or reversed. That is cervical kyphosis

So a report saying “thoracic kyphosis” may simply be describing your anatomy, while a report saying “cervical kyphosis” is describing a change. Same word, opposite meanings, which is why people read their imaging and come away more worried than they need to be — or less.

Is losing the curve in your neck serious?

Usually less serious than it sounds, and the reason is worth knowing. Changes to the neck’s curve and its discs are extremely common with age and frequently turn up in people with no symptoms at all: American Family Physician reports cervical disk degeneration on MRI in more than 85 percent of people older than 65 who have no symptoms. A scan of an adult neck very often reports changes that were already there and were never causing trouble.

That does not make the finding meaningless. It means the finding alone does not explain pain, and that a straightened or reversed curve on an X-ray is a description rather than a diagnosis. What matters is whether you have symptoms, what provokes them, and whether anything is changing.

When is a neck curve change actually urgent?

Some symptoms need a physician promptly rather than posture work. From the AAFP review of neck pain, the ones to act on:

• Numbness, tingling or weakness in the arms or hands, or clumsiness with your hands
• Changes to walking, balance or coordination, or any change in bowel or bladder control — these can indicate pressure on the spinal cord
• A ripping or tearing sensation in the neck, especially with any neurological symptom
• Fever, night sweats or neck stiffness, or unexplained weight loss and pain that does not ease at rest
• Neck pain after an injury, particularly with osteoporosis or rheumatoid arthritis

Reassuringly, most nerve-related neck pain settles on its own: the same review reports that 80 to 90 percent of people with cervical radiculopathy improve substantially within four weeks with conservative care. Lack of improvement is the signal to escalate, not the symptom itself.

Can cervical kyphosis be reversed?

It depends entirely on why the curve changed, and an X-ray is what settles that. Where the shape of the vertebrae and discs has altered, the curve itself is not going to be restored by exercise. Where the position is being held — by a rounded upper back pushing the head forward, by habitual screen posture, by the surrounding muscles — then how you carry your head and upper back is changeable, and that is the part posture work addresses.

In practice the neck is rarely the whole story. A head that sits forward usually sits forward because of what the upper back and shoulder blades are doing underneath it, which is why forward head posture and thoracic rounding are worth looking at alongside the neck rather than after it.

Sources

• Childress MA, Stuek SJ. Neck Pain: Initial Evaluation and Management. American Family Physician, 2020.
• Kyphosis (Roundback) of the Spine. OrthoInfo, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Related terms

• Military neck
• Forward head posture
• Tech neck
• Kyphosis
• Neck hump

Learn more and take the next step

Our guides to military neck and forward head posture cover self-checks, causes and exercises.

If you’d like someone to look at what’s driving your posture, a free 30-minute consultation starts with a postural assessment, in one of our clinics or through virtual posture therapy.

This entry is general education, not medical advice. If you have neck pain with arm numbness, tingling or weakness, balance problems, or pain after an injury, see a physician first.