Chronic cervicobrachialgia
If cervicobrachialgia cannot be treated adequately or does not respond to therapy, the symptoms may become chronic. Chronification is when the symptoms persist for more than three months. In this case you should contact a pain clinic/pain therapist.
Duration of cervicobrachialgia
The duration of cervicobrachialgia varies too much to give a general and always valid indication. Above all, the causes leading to the symptoms are relevant for the duration of cervicobrachialgia. Especially when the causes cannot be eliminated by therapy, as is the case with degenerative changes in the cervical spine, the duration of the complaints can be very long.
In other cases, such as muscle tension in the neck or shoulder, the symptoms can improve significantly after a few weeks or even days. The duration of the complaints can be shortened above all with the help of good pain therapy and adapted physiotherapy. It is also advisable not to seek medical advice only after the complaints have lasted for days or weeks, so that a chronification of the symptoms can be prevented.
Disability
Basically, cervicobrachialgia is a very common clinical picture, which in many cases leads to a temporary inability to work. This can take several weeks or even months, depending on the individual cause of the complaints and the individual healing processes. The aim of the attending physician and physiotherapist is to ensure that the person concerned is able to work as quickly as possible. If degeneration of the spine is the cause of the problem, retraining may be necessary, depending on the profession.
Anatomy of the cervical spine
On its way to the end of the spinal column, the spinal cord releases one pair of nerves (spinal cord nerves) at a time, layer by layer. After leaving the spinal cord, but still in close proximity to it, this spinal cord nerve is re-connected in a nerve root (new nerve cell). From there, a spinal nerve (ramus ventralis), which exits the spinal column to the right and left from a gap (intervertebral hole) provided for this purpose between two vertebral bodies (mobile segment), moves into the body.
Very soon after leaving the spinal column, the spinal nerves unite to form large body nerves (peripheral nerves). As such they move into the arms and legs and send and receive all kinds of information. The spinal cord nerves 4-8 of the cervical spine and the 1st spinal cord nerve of the thoracic spine are responsible for the arm supply by nerves.
These spinal cord nerves unite outside the spinal cord into 3 major body nerves. The tasks of the nerves include, above all, the control of reflex and muscle activity as well as the perception of sensation and pain. Through intensive research, it is now known exactly how the individual nerves run in the body, which skin area and which muscle is supplied by which body nerve or nerve root.
For this reason, it is possible to predict which body nerve or which nerve root is affected by a certain complex of symptoms (pain radiation, loss of sensation, muscle weakness or paralysis). In the presence of a slipped disc of the cervical spine or other major nerve damage with corresponding characteristic symptoms of failure, the doctor can thus easily determine the location of the nerve damage or the damaged nerve. A number of technical examination procedures are available to assist him (MRI of the cervical spine (magnetic resonance tomography), neurological nerve function measurements, e.g. measurement of nerve conduction velocity (NLG)).
- Radialis nerve (spoke nerve = radial nerve). – Median nerve (median nerve = Nervus medianus). – ulnar nerve (ulnar nerve = nervus ulnaris).
One nerve each for the right and left side of the body supplies a specific area of the body (dermatome) characteristic of these nerves. By means of numbness of certain areas, specific conclusions can be drawn about the affected nerve root.
