If the damage is in the neck area or cervical spine, the pain can spread to the shoulder, arm and hand. There may also be instability in the spine, leading to muscle spasms in the lower back or neck, as the body tries to stabilize the vertebrae. Cervicalgia, or neck pain, can occur anywhere in the neck, from the bottom of the head to the top of the shoulders. It can spread to the upper back or arms, and may limit how much the head and neck can move.
Can Cervicalgia Cause Shoulder Pain?
Cervical spondylosis and shoulder disorders share with neck and shoulder pain. Differentiating between the two can be challenging and patients with combined pathologies are less likely to improve pain even after a successful cervical operation. We investigated the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with cervical spondylosis, however, it turned out that they had shoulder disorders or patients whose pain originated solely in the shoulder. Intermittent neck and shoulder pain, or cervicalgia, is the most common syndrome observed in clinical practice.
This can be a frustrating problem for doctors and patients because the patient often has no associated neurological signs. When neurological deficits are present, diagnostic imaging can often help define the cause. However, when they are not present, imaging findings are usually not useful because the incidence of radiological abnormalities is quite high in people in this age group, even in asymptomatic patients. Cervical radiculopathy is a condition caused by the pinching or compression of the root of a spinal nerve in the neck.
It can cause pain and weakness, especially in the head, neck, shoulders, and arms. ICD-10, which is the coding system that most healthcare providers and therapists use to bill insurance, does not give the direct causes of cervical pain with the exception of disc disorder of the cervical spine. That said, the neck pain that you may experience due to a herniated disc, either alone or in addition to the irradiated symptoms, can be called cervicalgia. The cervical spine houses sensory organs and nerves, which means that cervicalgia can also be accompanied by other types of symptoms.
Researchers commented that moving towards symptom relief is easier when cervicalgia is not also accompanied by anxiety or depression. Cervicalgia can be quite intense at times, but it is usually felt in the same area from which it arises. Synergistic effect of physical therapy plus drug therapy with eperisone in tension cervicalgia. Cervicalgia causes localized pain ranging from a “stiff neck” to the inability to turn the head or bend the neck without sharp pain or tense muscles.
One third of patients with cervicalgia due to cervical spondylosis have headache and more than two-thirds have unilateral or bilateral shoulder pain. There are many causes of cervicalgia; most of the time, it has nothing to do with neck discs.
