Radiating neck pain shoots down the neck into the shoulder or arm. This sudden, sharp, zinging pain, medically known as radiculopathy, can stop you in your tracks. When pain travels instead of staying in one spot, it’s usually a sign that a nerve in your neck needs attention.
Radiating neck pain is a common reason our patients see Dr. Rajesh Bindal at Texas Spine & Neurosurgery Center. He’s a nerve pain expert with more than 20 years of experience in diagnosing and treating radiculopathy and its underlying causes.
What Radiating Neck Pain Feels Like
Patients often describe aching, burning, tingling, or weakness along a nerve’s path. For example, the pain might start at the base of your neck and shoot through your shoulder and arm. These symptoms often point to irritation or compression of a cervical nerve root.
Understanding the underlying cause is the first step toward relief. Many spinal conditions can create this pattern of pain, especially when the nerves in the neck become inflamed or compressed.
Why Radiating Neck Pain Happens
Some of the most common reasons neck pain spreads into the arm are:
- Herniated cervical disc: When a cervical disc protrudes and compresses a nearby nerve, patients often experience sharp pain, tingling, or numbness in the arm.
- Cervical spinal stenosis: Narrowing of the spinal canal around the nerves can create pressure that sends pain into the shoulder or arm.
- Cervical spinal instability: When the bones or ligaments in the neck no longer hold the spine firmly in place, even small movements can irritate nearby nerves. This can create neck pain that travels into the shoulder or arm, especially during turning or lifting movements.
- Degenerative disc disease: As cervical discs lose height with age, nearby nerves may become irritated. This can cause neck stiffness and aching that spreads into the arm.
Treatments For Radiating Neck Pain
At Texas Spine & Neurosurgery Center, Dr. Bindal and our team know that your neck pain has a solution, and we provide the full spectrum of neck pain treatments to help you get back to a pain-free, active life sooner.
Treatment depends on the severity of symptoms and the underlying cause. After an evaluation, Dr. Bindal may recommend changes in activity, medications, physical therapy, injections, or minimally invasive surgery.
If radiating neck pain is affecting your comfort or mobility, an early evaluation can help prevent symptoms from becoming more disruptive. Call us at 281-313-0031 to book your appointment and get help for shooting neck pain.