What Causes Upper Left Back, Shoulder And Left Arm Pain?

Posted on Thu, 2 Apr 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 2 Apr 2015 Answered on

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : I have moderate to severe upper left back/shoulder and left arm pain with sudden onset. No chest pain.

Answered by Dr. Divakara (32 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
It's Cervical radiculopathy.

Detailed Answer:
HI XXXXXXX .

Greetings from Dr.Divakara.P
Thanks for posting your query.

Your problem is most likely due to Cervical Radiculopathy. It is a condition where there occurs compression of a nerve between the neck bones . Due to this nerve compression there occurs pain in the back of neck , shoulder , arm , hand , chest and back .

For the comfirmation of diagnosis and to know the severity you need to get a MRI scan of your neck . Kindly get it and revert back to me .

But also another condition which closely mimics cervical radiculopathy is Heart attack . So my advice for you is first get EKG done and if it is normal get a MRI scan done .

If EKG is normal ask your doctor for a prescription of pregabalin and use it .

Hope this information was useful to you .
Any clarifications feel free to ask .

Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar