Neck pain that shoots in to the arm is more common than
you think. Doroski Chiropractic Neurology
in Woodbridge VA sees it on a weekly basis.
The good news is it can be fixed sometimes without surgery.
Pain into the arm or shoulder area with associated neck
pain may not be the dreaded disk injury everyone is afraid of. It could be an injury called thoracic outlet
syndrome. It sounds scary but it is
quite common and can be fixed with the proper non-surgical treatments. At Doroski Chiropractic Neurology we can
quickly and properly diagnose this injury
The thoracic outlet is a passageway for the nerves and
blood vessels into your arm. It is
located in the upper chest area. It is
made of a boney and muscular opening. So
anything that causes anyone of those structures to become enlarged can
compromise the opening. The most common
and most treatable is a muscle spasm that caused the muscle to swell.
If this is the case most patients complain of the neck
and upper arm pain but they also have a very sharp at the top medial corner of
their shoulder blade. This is the
attachement of the Levator Scapulae muscle.
This muscle also passes behind the thoracic outlet area and it can swell
pushing into the opening and compressing a nerve.
Since we are not hollow creatures everything is touching
everything. So a spasm of the neck
support musculature can push the tissue forward which then pushes in to the
opening. This spasm is most notable by
neck pain and upper shoulder blade pain.
It can be associated with pain in the neck and arm when turning the head
towards the side of the pain. Sometimes
turning away from the painful side can actually decrease the neck pain and the
referral.
A chiropractor can diagnose this injury from a disk
injury and apply the proper treatment.
The treatment usually involves heat, electrical stimulation, stretching
and trigger point therapy. Once the
muscle is relaxed manipulation of the spine can also help.
Doroski Chiropractic Neurology
3122 Golansky Blvd, Ste 102
Woodbridge VA 22192
703 730 9588
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