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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Does Pinched Nerve In Back Exacerbate The Carpal Tunnel?

I have had problems with carpal tunnel in the past. However, it hasn t been a problem for quite some time. I have been working on a lot of lifting, twisting, pushing, shoving - in general, deep housecleaning. I have twinges of tingly pain in my shoulders - which I am thinking are caused by a pinched nerve. That pain is about middle of my shoulder blade, most on one side, but sometimes clear across to the other, and pain for about 3 inches of my vertebrae between the shoulder blades and down. Now my carpal tunnel is bothering me greatly. I understand the cause of carpal tunnel, irritation of the nerves running through the tunnel in the wrist. Is there any chance that the pinched nerves in my back exacerbate the carpal tunnel? The back pain is tolerable, the carpal tunnel is less so. Diane
Fri, 3 Jul 2015
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General & Family Physician,  's  Response
dear Diane, your manual activities may have inflamed your upper limb and back muscles and tendons. your back pain seem to be due to muscles more than a pinched nerve. in the meanwhile, inflamed tendons of the forearm have worsened nerve compression in the carpal tunnel (they pass in the tunnel too, so if they are inflamed, tunnel pressure rises pressing on the nerve). a pinched nerve at the cervical spine, may give symptoms to arm, forearm and hand, but with a different distribution than carpal tunnel syndrome. I suggest to you to do an EMG/ENG to understand severity of nerve compression (if needed, undergo surgery for carpal tunnel) and differentiate it from upper limb pain due to cervical problems. rest your back. if you are feeling a pain from neck to arm/hand, do a cervical MRI to exclude cervical discopathy
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Does Pinched Nerve In Back Exacerbate The Carpal Tunnel?

dear Diane, your manual activities may have inflamed your upper limb and back muscles and tendons. your back pain seem to be due to muscles more than a pinched nerve. in the meanwhile, inflamed tendons of the forearm have worsened nerve compression in the carpal tunnel (they pass in the tunnel too, so if they are inflamed, tunnel pressure rises pressing on the nerve). a pinched nerve at the cervical spine, may give symptoms to arm, forearm and hand, but with a different distribution than carpal tunnel syndrome. I suggest to you to do an EMG/ENG to understand severity of nerve compression (if needed, undergo surgery for carpal tunnel) and differentiate it from upper limb pain due to cervical problems. rest your back. if you are feeling a pain from neck to arm/hand, do a cervical MRI to exclude cervical discopathy