Arm pain - Causes and Symptoms

Definition

Often, when a pain is felt in the left arm, one is alarmed, thinking of one of the typical symptoms of the infarct. In fact, the pain referred to the brachial region is more often due to muscular disorders, shoulder pathologies or the compression of the cervical nerve roots (as happens in cervicoarthrosis and in the disc hernia).

Cervicobrachialgia is a radicular pain syndrome due to a conflict between the vertebral disc and nerve root in the cervical spine. It manifests with cervical disorders (contraction and limitation of head movements) and brachial disorders (arm pain, altered sensitivity and motility and altered reflexes).

The herniated cervical disc develops, instead, when an intervertebral disc comes out of its own seat, it touches the sheath of a nerve and causes chronic pain, loss of strength and alteration of sensitivity at the level of the arm.

In the scapulohumeral periarthritis, the mechanical irritation of the tendons that pass through a narrow space, included between the acromion of the scapula and the head of the humerus, causes pain in the shoulder, radiated to the arm, with typically nocturnal aggravation and during an effort with the raised limb.

Arm pain associated with weakness, easy exhaustion, tingling of the arms and sometimes swelling and cyanosis is also found in thoracic outlet syndrome .

Other causes include fibromyalgia (causes chronic and widespread muscle pain, accompanied by stiffness), contractures, trauma, bone fractures and tendon ruptures.

Furthermore, this symptom may depend on compression of the ulnar nerve and brachial plexus lesions, acute inflammation of the joints and other arthropathies, insufficient supply of mineral salts and nutrients, incorrect posture and prolonged exercise.