Your arm numbness might actually be coming from your neck. Many people don’t realize that nerve compression in the cervical spine causes numbness and tingling that travels down into the arms and hands, often mimicking problems that seem unrelated to the neck.
At Advanced Pain Management Center in Portland, Oregon, interventional pain management specialist Vladimir Fiks, MD, uses detailed nerve mapping to trace arm numbness back to specific compression points in the cervical spine, often with neck treatment to resolve persistent arm symptoms.
Your cervical spine contains nerve roots that branch out to different parts of your arms and hands. When these nerves compress at the neck level, you feel the effects in very specific patterns:
Dr. Fiks maps these numbness patterns during examination to pinpoint exactly which nerve root is compressed.
When a cervical disc herniates, the damaged disc material typically pushes backward and sideways into the narrow spaces where nerve roots exit the spine. This creates direct pressure on the nerve and causes inflammation that can send numbness all the way to your fingertips.
The numbness often starts mild and gets worse over time as the herniated material continues pressing on the nerve. Your head position can make this worse — looking down or bending your neck forward increases pressure on already compressed nerves.
Some patients find temporary relief by raising their affected arm over their head, which opens up the nerve exit space and reduces pressure.
Cervical arthritis creates bone spurs that gradually make the neural foramina smaller. These are the openings where nerves leave your spine to travel into your arms. Unlike disc herniations that can happen suddenly, this narrowing develops over years.
Arthritis-related arm numbness tends to feel more constant than disc-related numbness. You might notice it’s worse in the morning after sleeping in certain positions, then improves as you move around during the day.
Dr. Fiks uses advanced imaging to measure exactly how much space remains around each nerve root, determining whether the narrowing requires treatment.
Not all arm numbness starts at the spine level. Some compression happens in the neck muscles themselves.
The brachial plexus is where multiple nerve roots combine before traveling to your arm. This network passes through muscle groups that can squeeze the nerves when they become tight or inflamed.
This condition occurs when nerves get compressed between your collarbone and first rib, or within tight scalene muscles in your neck. The numbness pattern can look similar to spine problems but requires different treatment.
Dr. Fiks performs specific tests to distinguish between spine-level compression and muscle-related nerve entrapment, since these conditions sometimes occur together.
Once we identify where your nerves are being compressed, treatment focuses on that specific area rather than just managing your arm symptoms.
These place anti-inflammatory medication directly at the spine level causing your arm numbness, reducing inflammation around compressed nerve roots from disc herniations.
This cellular treatment may help repair damaged discs or strengthen ligaments that have allowed abnormal movement to compress nerves, addressing underlying tissue damage rather than just covering symptoms.
This procedure reduces pain signals from affected joints when bone spurs severely narrow nerve pathways.
Muscle-related nerve compression often responds to specialized physical therapy, targeted injections, or peripheral nerve stimulation depending on the specific location and severity.
Arm numbness that stems from neck problems requires accurate diagnosis to identify the exact compression location. Dr. Fiks uses detailed neurological examination combined with advanced imaging to trace your symptoms to their cervical spine source.
Call Advanced Pain Management Center in Portland today or schedule a consultation online. Dr. Fiks can evaluate your arm numbness pattern and determine whether cervical spine treatment might resolve symptoms that haven’t improved with other approaches.
