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Arm pain with cervical spinal stenosis?

Posted by sarahdee @sarahdee, Aug 23, 2023

Good morning. This is my first time posting and I greatly appreciate any answers.
I have severe cervical spinal stenosis. My question is can it cause severe arm pain? My entire arm hurts so bad and my hand are having pins and needles like sensations. To me the pain feels like something is torn in the upper part of my arm. I cannot use that arm much. But my entire are is so painful.
Thanks in advance...

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steveinarizona | @steveinarizona | 1 day ago
In reply to @upstatephil "The pain you describe in your arm matches my experiences pretty closely. I ended up having..." + (show)
Profile picture for Phil, Alumni Mentor @upstatephil

The pain you describe in your arm matches my experiences pretty closely. I ended up having a C4-7 ACDF and the pain is 98% (and improving) resolved at six months post. Remarkably, with the right neurosurgeon, an ACDF procedure can be pretty straight forward. While scary at the time - in retrospect, I recovered fairly quickly with noticeable symptom improvement almost immediately and a return to near normal in less than a month. But of course, your situation is different and your recovery will be, too. I suggest getting a diagnosis from a top spine specialist (I like the idea of a neurosurgeon over ortho) using the latest equipment (I had MRI + X-ray) at a first rate facility (Mayo for me). I didn't see your age...but "fixing" what you are now experiencing is a worthwhile objective.

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@upstatephil
I have both spinal and lumbar stenosis. At the moment it is under control from a caudal epidural steroid shot. But I have a great neurosurgeon on call for when that stops working.

There was a point in time when that surgeon stopped taking my insurance. I went to another highly rated surgeon and he told me that I needed neck surgery (for the spinal) and back surgery (for the lumbar) and that the neck surgery had to be traditional as it was too bad for a minimally invasive method.

I managed to get the insurance matter straightened out. I went to my regular guy who is the Director of minimally invasive spinal surgery at the Barrows Institute and he said he could do the neck minimally invasively.

The key words in your post, IMHO, are "with the right neurosurgeon". Finding the right surgeon is critical, especially when dealing with the spine.

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