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Each time a nerve is pinched in the necks backbone, pain can be this type of prominent symptom that more subtle, but diagnostic, aspects are overlooked. 

By way of background, the spinal cord in the neck is attached to the nerves of the arms through pairs of spinal nerves. These spinal nerves, also known as roots or radicles, transfer incoming messages (electrical impulses) from the arms nerves concerning sensations of touch, suffering, heat and cold on various areas of skin. Also, the cervical roots present outgoing messages (also electrical signals) through the arms nerves for their muscles, causing them to deal. 

When a cervical origin is pinched, the touch can cause not only pain, but--by blocking incoming and outgoing nerve impulses--it can also produce numbness of areas of skin, weakness of muscles, or both. The syndrome due to the pinch in the neck is named cervical radiculopathy. The suffix -pathy means damage or impairment, so radiculopathy means damage or impairment of a (root). 

There are four pairs of cervical roots connecting the spinal cord to the hands nerves and they are named for the segment of spinal cord to which they are attached--C5, C6, C7 and C8, with the C assigning cervical. The shoulder pain is the least distinguishing or diagnostic part of the people symptoms, while a touch of any of these sources typically provides agonizing, deep pain in the shoulder which preoccupies the unfortunate individual who has it. 

The pain usually shoots to the arm on the affected part, and specific movements of head and neck can intensify or reproduce this pain. While the supply element of the pain is less intense than that experienced in the shoulder, its place is often the key to figuring out which root is pinched. Furthermore, the design of numbness or weakness also varies based on which root is squeezed. These patterns are almost identical from one individual to another and are as follows: 

C5 disability can send pain over the top of the shoulder in the fourth of the supply which is also where numbness occurs, when present. If you find weakness, it requires the ability to elevate the arm sideways to the amount of the shoulder or above. You will find no good (rubber-hammer-type) reactions the doctor may use to try this root. 

C6 impairment can send pain as far as the thumb that will be also where numbness occurs, when present. If you find weakness, it involves the ability to extend the knee. The medical practitioner could also test for C6 disability with the biceps-reflex , involving striking a tendon in the crook of the knee. 

C7 impairment can send pain as far as the middle fingers that will be also where numbness happens, when present. It involves the ability to extend the elbow, If you have weakness. The doctor may also test for C7 impairment with the triceps-reflex that involves striking a tendon on the back of the shoulder. 

C8 disability can send pain in terms of the small finger that will be also where numbness happens, when present. It involves certain hand-movements, including the power to join the tips of the small finger and the thumb and also to spread the fingers sideways, when there is weakness. There are no great reflexes the physician can use to check this origin. 

Having determined the typical syndromes, the alternative is to know what caused the crunch in the initial place. It's on average 1 of 2 things--a herniated (slipped) disk or perhaps a bony spur. Younger adults are more likely to have a disk and older adults are more likely to have a bony spur. Drives are soft structures sandwiched between each pair of backbone bones (vertebral bodies). Their normally hard outer membranes can damage and allow extrusion of interior computer material--somewhat like toothpaste squeezed out of a tube--into the side-canals whereby the spinal roots must pass. This barriers and compresses them. Bony spurs, on the other hand, are not soft at all. Rather, they are hard ridges of extra bone situated on the sides of the back-bones. They are created by arthritic degeneration. They, too, may capture and compress the spinal roots where they exit the spine. 

How is cervical radiculopathy diagnosed? The people history and examination in many cases are very informative and specific, as described. Exams of nerve and muscle electricity--called nerve conduction studies and electromyography--can help localize the disability, when the structure of nerve-impairment is uncertain. These electrical tests may also detect problems in the nerves of the arms which could mimic cervical radiculopathy, but require different medical management. 

Until the 1980s myelograms made the best pictures of the pinches occurring in the spine. To execute a myelogram a doctor began with a lumbar puncture a tap) (also known in the patients spine and injected x-ray dye into the watery area within the membrane covering the spinal cord and its origins. To ensure that the color went in to the corresponding area in the neck the patient was then tilted. Typical x-ray photographs showed the column of dye together with any indentations of the column the effect of a herniated disk or bony spur. 

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was developed in the 1980s and produced similar pictures but without having to complete a tap or dye infusion. Computed tomographic (CT) scans, produced in the 1970s, are often the smallest amount of of good use of the spinal imaging practices, except when a straight away preceding myelogram has been conducted, in which case they could be noticeably beneficial. Each of these these imaging tests has its strengths and weaknesses--none of them is obviously the best--so testing should be tailored to each case. 

And think about treatment of the condition? Well, thats an account deserving its own article. Keep tuned in. 

(C) 2005 by Gary Cordingley [http://www.ocpainfree.com/orange-county-pain-clinic-cities-serviced/santa-ana.html santa ana pain management]