Athletes involved in high impact sports such as football, hockey and wrestling may be familiar with burner or stinger injuries, in which the neck is jarred to the side and a nerve is pinched. As a further extension of the injury, the sufferer will usually feel a shooting pain or stinging pain that goes down the arm, leaving their limb numb and weakened.

An arm that feels weak or numb is usually suffering from a cessation of its nerve supply from the brain. Nerves that run from the neck to the hand are known collectively as the brachial plexus, and they diverge from the spine between the C5 and T1 vertebrae. In a burner/stinger injury, this nerve bundle is momentarily traumatized leading to loss of sensation in the entire arm. Usually, feeling will return to the arm in a matter of minutes, but in more serious cases, brachial plexus stingers can damage the nerve so severely that neurological deficiencies will exist past the date of the injury.

 If your pain or neurological dysfunction is lingering in the wake of a brachial plexus stinger, call our office in Fremont where we have experience treating this condition. With the force involved in a stinger, there is often misalignment of the spine between the C5 and T1 vertebrae, causing impingement to the nerve that could be contributing to your lack of feeling or pain. We correct these misalignments with chiropractic adjustment and focus on releasing trigger points in the cervical spine. With our help, you can restore your arm to a state of full function.

Our office can be reached at (510) 656-9077.

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C.