Updated: Mar 27, 2020

Editor: Gausalyah (Physiotherapist of Grand Care Rehabilitation)

Here comes another amazing story of our client Mr Peter aged 21 years old who was diagnosed with cervical radiculopathy. What is cervical radiculopathy: it’s also called as pinched nerve and occurs when a nerve in the neck is compressed or irritated from the spinal cord. This condition causes numbness and pain that travels down to the arm into the hand. Mr Peter visited our centre on 1/7/2019. The major complaint from him was numbness over the left side of body (include arm and leg) for the past 5 years. He felt the numbness frequently about 2 – 3 times every day. He is a part time badminton couch for children below 12 year’s old and played badminton 4 days a week. Mr Peter went to hospital for further investigation such as CT scan and MRI before he came to our centre. MRI finding shows that he has cervical radiculopathy. He seeks a lot of treatment from other part of western medicine and traditional way which is less effective for his condition.

Although he was diagnosed with cervical radiculopathy, but thorough our physiotherapy assessment we found that he has muscle imbalance over the spinal muscles and leg muscles. My short term goal for him was to reduce the numbness within 5 session of treatment.  Mr Peter received acupuncture and Physiotherapy rehabilitation at our centre which is a combination of eastern and western treatment (Acuphysio).  After the 1^st session of treatment he claimed that the numbness over the Left side of arm and Leg reduced and reoccurrence of the numbness also reduced.  After 4 session of treatment he claimed that the numbness over the Left side of arm and Leg reduced almost 95 %. On the 5^TH session he claimed that there is no numbness over the left side of the arm and leg, he was discharged after the 5^TH Session.

Here I’m sharing the treatment and exercises that Mr Peter received at our centre:

* Imbalance muscle involved left upper trapezius, rhomboids and Left Lower limb muscles include piriformis, gluteal muscles, hamstring and calf.

1. Acupuncture: to improve the blood circulation, enhance healing process

2.Soft tissue manipulation/ myofascial release:  to release tension and reduce the tightness of muscles

3. Manual traction of cervical spine: help to take the pressure off from the nerve and improve the mobility.

4. Active stretching exercises of tight muscles:  stretch and release the tight muscle

5. Cervical retraction exercises: to strengthen the weak muscle and correct the neck Posture

6. Spinal manipulation: to restore or to enhance joint function

All the exercises and treatment are tailored to each an individual based on our understanding about pathophysiology of the condition.

“Never Give Up Because Great Thing Take Time”