ART Spotlight Article: Woman treated for numbness and pain tingling down arm. Saved from surgury.
I would like to tell you about a case that we treated last month.
A young female in her 20's was facing surgery for numbness, pain and tingling down
her shoulder and arm. Various therapies had failed and her workman's
compensation doctor said that surgery was likely. They would remove a rib
and do a few other things in the process. The problem was that she would
most likely never work again.
He did offer one possible alternative and that was treatment with Active
Release Techniques. This involved using manual contacts and motion of the
shoulder, neck and arm to find and break up adhesions that trap the nerves
in several places.
Well, after two treatments the pain was gone. Before treatment she did not
have the strength to turn a door knob and now she can do all the normal
things with that arm and hand including opening a tight jar. How could this
happen so fast?
The nerves to the arm and hand can be trapped in five places between the
neck and arm. In this case there was an adhesion (scar tissue) that stuck
the nerves to a muscle (pectoralis minor) and a bone in the shoulder. When
this was released there was an immediate change in symptoms. The shaking of
the hand stopped. The pain stopped and the strength returned in less than
five minutes.
The moral of this story is that surgery for thoracic outlet, carpal tunnel
and most other nerve entrapments can almost always be avoided. Sometimes
surgery is necessary but before you go under the knife, see an ART provider.