Radiculopathy is a condition that occurs when one or more nerves in your spine are compressed, irritated, or inflamed. This nerve root compression can lead to pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness along the nerve’s path. Radiculopathy can affect your cervical (neck), thoracic (mid-back), or lumbar (lower back) regions, causing discomfort in your back, arms, or legs.
Common forms include cervical radiculopathy, lumbar radiculopathy, and thoracic radiculopathy. Understanding the underlying causes and recognizing the symptoms early can help you seek the right radiculopathy treatment, improve your back health, and relieve pain effectively.
Herniated or bulging discs
Spinal stenosis (narrow spinal canal)
Bone spurs pressing on nerves
Injury or trauma to spine or back
Degenerative disc disease
Poor posture or repetitive strain
Lumbar or cervical nerve root compression
Age-related spine degeneration
Poor posture or prolonged sitting
Heavy lifting or physical strain
Obesity, adding stress to lower back
Previous back injuries
Sedentary lifestyle and weak back muscles
Diabetes or nerve health issues
Pain in your lower back, neck, or mid-back
Radiating pain to arms, legs, or buttocks
Numbness or tingling in fingers, hands, or feet
Weakness in arms or legs
Difficulty with daily tasks
Sciatica or shooting leg pain
Neck pain with arm discomfort
Signs of a pinched nerve in back
Treatments range from conservative treatment to surgery. Our goal is to provide you with the best treatment plan to reduce pain, but these treatments do not change the underlying source of pain. Medical treatments are often used in combination such as: medications, physical therapy programs, and injection therapy.
Treats radiating pain; deposit the medication, typically steroids in the epidural space of the spine.
Targets a specific spinal nerve and deposit medication around the nerve at the point where it exits the intervertebral foramen (bony opening between adjacent vertebrae).
Treat pain stemming from a specific facet joint.
Deposit medication around the medial branches of spinal nerves. The medial branch is a nerve that sends pain signals to the brain from an arthritic facet joint. An injection directed around the medial branch can relieve neck and lower back pain.
Treats pain by lesioning medial branch nerves of the facet joints.
