title: Cervicobrachial pain - How Often is it Neurogenic?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neck pain associated with pain in the arm (cervicobrachial pain) is a common complaint in patients seeking physiotherapy management. The source of symptoms for this complaint is commonly presumed to be neural. However, this pain pattern could also result from various other innervated tissue structures of the upper quarter. Knowledge about frequency of neural structures being a predominant source of symptoms would help in implementing appropriate therapeutic strategies such as neural tissue mobilization along with other complimentary therapies for optimal outcomes.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the frequency of cervicobrachial pain being neurogenic.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants (n=361) aged between 20-65 years, reporting cervicobrachial pain were screened for neurogenic nature of symptoms. These physical signs included: active and passive movement dysfunction, adverse responses to neural tissue provocation tests, tenderness on palpating nerve trunks and related cutaneous tissues and evidence of a related local area of pathology (Clinical/radiological). The consistency of all these signs was checked to identify a significant neural involvement.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. Of 361 participants, 206 were males (44.6 ±10.8 years) and 155 were females (41.8 ± 11.2 years). The frequency of neurogenic cervicobrachial pain was determined to be 19.9% (n=72) and the non-neurogenic sources for symptoms were attributed to 80.1% (n=289) of screened participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lower frequency of cervicobrachial pain being neurogenic indicates thorough screening for appropriate therapeutic interventions to be successful.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor -Selection Grade, Department of Physiotherapy, School of Allied Health Sciences , Manipal University, Manipal, India .
authors.forename: Ranganath
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gangavelli
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of Statistics, Manipal University , Manipal, India .
authors.forename: N Sreekumaran
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of Orthopedics, Kasturba Medical College , Manipal University, Manipal, India .
authors.forename: Anil K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Bhat
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Physiotherapy, School of Allied Health Sciences , Manipal University, Manipal, India .
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Solomon
keywords: Arm pain; Epidemiology; Neck pain