Arm pain with cervical spinal stenosis

@sarahdee Hello and welcome to Connect. You are absolutely correct that cervical stenosis can cause arm pain. There are other causes too, so it is important that your spine specialist figures out where your pain is coming from. It sounds like you have imaging that indicates severe stenosis. Has your specialist recommended surgical intervention?

I am a cervical spine surgery patient. I had stenosis in the central canal from a collapsed C5/C6 disc and bone spurs. That was giving me pain all over my body from spinal cord compression. That also was confusing to a lot of surgeons who expected me to only have arm pain, and cases like mine are described in medical literature as a "rare presentation" of symptoms. I did not have compression of the nerve roots that exit between the vertebrae. If you have compression or arthritis there, it compresses a specific nerve causing symptoms that are consistent to that part of the body. If a disc is collapsed enough, it starts to close down the space between vertebrae. Mine was collapsed by 50%, and if I bent my neck to the side, it did cause nerve pain to start, and a straight position did not. That was reproducible, so I knew it was because the bones were closer and not because of excess bone growth within the foramen (the space between vertebrae where nerve roots exit) .

Compression of the spinal cord can cause pain that changes location because the spinal cord floats and moves within the spinal canal with different body movements. You can have problems in any of those areas causing overlapping symptoms. I also have thoracic outlet syndrome which is a compression between muscles of nerves that go to my arms that happens anywhere from the side of the neck to under the collarbone and into the arm pit.

Are you considering surgery? May I answer any questions about my experience? Are you getting several opinions about your best options?

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.

@upstatephil Phil, we are both Mayo surgery alumni. How cool is that? You are welcome to talk about your surgeon if you wish. It helps people understand how good surgeons do their job.

I enjoy working with you to assist others. I appreciate your leadership!

About 20 years ago I went to my spine surgeon in Oklahoma City.. he had done a lumbar fusion L4, L5, S1 about 5 years prior.. he gave me an epidural...there was no relief of the pain in the arms, up to neck.. so my spine surgeon said, you have cubital tunnel syndrome... sure enough.. the spine surgeon sent me to and arm surgeon who fixed the problem (the crazy bone nerve was moved so it was not stretched as I bent my arm.) All out patient surgery...