When a nerve is pinched in the necks spinal column, pain can be such a prominent symptom that more subtle, but diagnostic, aspects are overlooked.
By way of background, the spinal cord in the neck is connected to the nerves of the arms through pairs of spinal nerves. These spinal nerves, also known as roots or radicles, transmit incoming messages (electrical impulses) from the arms nerves concerning sensations of touch, pain, heat and cold on various patches of skin. Additionally, the cervical roots convey outgoing messages (also electrical impulses) through the arms nerves to their muscles, causing them to contract.
So when a cervical root is pinched, the pinch can cause not just pain, but–by blocking incoming and outgoing nerve impulses–it can also produce numbness of patches of skin, weakness of muscles, or both. The syndrome caused by the pinch in the neck is called cervical radiculopathy. The suffix -pathy means damage or impairment, so radiculopathy means damage or impairment of a radicle (root).
There are four pairs of cervical roots connecting the spinal cord to the arms nerves and they are named for the segment of spinal cord to which...
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