Cervical Radiculopathy

About Cervical Radiculopathy

When you have a pinched nerve in your neck, even doing everyday tasks becomes unbearably painful. Rather than try to wait it out, hoping it resolves itself, visit the team of spine specialists at the Spine & Rehab Group. They have eight conveniently located offices in Manhattan and across northern New Jersey. You’ll find experts in neck and back pain who quickly diagnose the cause of your cervical radiculopathy and recommend the best treatment. Call for an appointment today to get treatment for cervical radiculopathy and get the pain relief you need to return to an active lifestyle.

What Defines Cervical Radiculopathy?

An easy way to define cervical radiculopathy is to put it in a category with pinched nerves in your neck. When a nerve becomes compromised or compacted, it sends pain signals up your spinal cord to your brain. Since your spinal cord is a communication passageway to and from your brain to the rest of your central nervous system. Pain always means there’s a problem in your body.

Dr. Amr Hosny and the Spine & Rehab Group team in New York City and northern New Jersey locate the compressed nerve that’s causing the pain. Then they provide the best treatment for cervical radiculopathy to meet your needs. The treatment eliminates or reduces pain in most. If your pain persists, your spine specialist provides pain management that works.

What Are Some of the Reasons for This Condition?

Cervical radiculopathy is a result of the normal process of aging. If you’re younger, more than likely it’s the result of a neck injury. The damage to your neck often winds up causing a cervical disc herniation. The cushioning disc no longer protects your vertebrae. The nerve that exists the spinal canal at that point in your neck becomes compressed and inflamed. But this condition responds well to professional treatment.

There are other possible causes of cervical radiculopathy, but they are rare or have contributing factors. For example, some of these other causes include:

• Lifting large or heavy items without using proper techniques
• Parachuting
• Decompression sickness that makes nitrogen bubbles in your tissue, as scuba divers experience
• Ganglion compressions creating a cyst wall that constricts a nerve
• Metabolic disturbances resulting in hypertension or altered glucose levels
• Cerebral palsy
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Growths on your spine
• Sarcoidosis

What Symptoms Will Cause Me to Seek Treatment?

There are many reasons you may seek treatment of cervical radiculopathy. Some conditions that accompany cervical radiculopathy or are similar in nature include:

• Carpel tunnel syndrome
• Inflammatory arthritis
• Cervical bursitis
• Cervical fibromyositis
• Disorders of the cervical spinal cord

Some of the symptoms you experience may require a complete examination from your doctor at the Spine & Rehab Group to diagnose and treat you. These symptoms include:

• Emanating pain in your neck, shoulder blade or arm
• A sensation of numbness
• Skin that’s cold or hot to the touch
• Sensory disruption
• Lowered muscle stretch responses
• Paresthesia, which is a tingling sensation
• Muscle spasms

Less common symptoms may include:

• Weakness in your thumb extension
• Jaw pain
• Pseudo-angina

Do Cervical Radiculopathy Treatments Work?

Because this condition is degenerative, similar to degenerative disc disease, treatment of cervical radiculopathy is necessary to help you maintain neck mobility and remain pain-fee. Your spine specialist prefers to begin with interventional pain management tactics and education that include:

• The knowledge that, as you age, your condition deteriorates.
• Because you may also receive a diagnosis of spondylosis or disc herniation, you need to be alert for those symptoms as well.
• If your condition worsens, it doesn’t mean there isn’t hope. Most cases of cervical radiculopathy are treatable.
• You may have to commit to a pain management regimen, regardless of whether you’re currently in treatment or not.

Your experienced medical team with the Spine & Rehab Group focuses on your well-being. They treat you based on your needs. After four to 12 weeks of non-operative treatment, your condition should improve. If not, your specialist may consider other, more invasive treatment modalities, always with your best interests in mind.

What Are the Best Cervical Radiculopathy Treatments?

First, your spine specialist needs to complete a thorough evaluation. This assessment differentiates cervical radiculopathy from other disorders, which may appear in conjunction with your pinched nerve. In many cases, conservative treatments used in combination are effective for treatment of cervical radiculopathy. Your treatment may include:

• Moist heat compresses
• Ultrasound
• Cervical traction
• Instructions to improve your neck ergonomics
• Relaxation techniques
• Physical therapy and education
• Manual manipulation and massage
• Alteration of your activities to reduce stress on the nerve
• A cervical epidural steroid injection into the affected nerve root

Your symptoms may worsen even with prompt treatment of cervical radiculopathy, requiring other treatment options. You may lose some strength in your hands. Dr. Hosny and his team provide the necessary information in laymen’s terms to help you make an informed decision. Some possible surgical solutions to your condition may include:

• Artificial disc replacement, used to replace an unhealthy disc
• Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery to remove the problem disc and fuse your vertebrae together
• Posterior foraminotomy, a less invasive procedure that provides high-quality imaging data to the surgeon

Whatever is causing your neck pain, the team of advanced spine doctors at the Spine & Rehab Group quickly diagnose the cause and recommend the best treatment. They are highly trained in treatment for cervical radiculopathy. For an accurate assessment and effective treatments, contact the office nearest to you for a consultation. They have eight locations in NYC and northern NJ.