Damaged Brachial Plexus From A Nerve Block. Have Tingling In Hand And Fingers, Pain In Arm. Worried

Posted on Mon, 9 Jul 2012

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

Mon, 9 Jul 2012 Answered on

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : I had damage to my brachial plexus from a nerve block gone bad in Dec. 2000. Tonight I fell asleep at computer, I woke up in misery with pain because my neck jolted so hard, I have tingling in left hand fingers, the pinky the worse, pain in my arm around the top outside of my elbow, pain all in my left side of neck, feel like my heart is pounding

Answered by Dr. Aparna Kohli (2 hours later)

Hi,
Thanks for writing in.
I think the abnormal posture while sleeping has compressed a nerve trunk in the brachial plexus. Given your symptoms, I would be looking at involvement of C5, C6 and C7 dermatomes.
Overall, I think you would need to go the ER and get a splint in place. Additionally, you would need an opioid analgesic to help control the pain. You would probably need some physiotherapy as well.
Let me know if I can address any more concerns.
Regards

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