What Causes Arm Pain After Back Surgery?

Posted on Thu, 15 Oct 2015

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

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 Answered on

Wed, 4 Nov 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : I had back surgery to remove a bad disc .before surgery I had severe pain in my right arm.it has been one week and I still have the same amount of pain in my right arm .any suggestions. Thank you.

Answered by Dr. Chobufo Ditah (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
This back surgery was probably not to control the arm pain.

Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you so much for this query.

I am so sorry to hear about this right arm pain that you have repeated. Back surgery cannot have any effect on arm pain as the nerves to the arm exit a longtime before getting to the back area. There is no ground on which we would have expected relief of this arm pain following back surgery. It seems the surgeon didn't tell you this and probably why you have been expecting to observe some relief which is very very unlikely.

My recommendation is that you should get some good pain medications now. This will be followed be a detailed evaluation of this arm pain for possible causes and treatment options. We cannot rely o the back surgery to observe an improvement in this arm pain.

I hope this helps. I wish you well. Thanks for using our services and feel free to ask for more information and clarifications if need be.

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