The signs of nerve damage Numbness or tingling in the hands and feet. Feeling like you're wearing a tight glove or sock. Muscle weakness, especially in your arms or legs. Regularly dropping objects that you're holding.
Peripheral Nerve Injury Symptoms
People with traumatic nerve damage can experience severe, unrelenting pain, burning sensation, tingling or total loss of sensation in the part of the body affected by the damaged nerve.
Nerves recover slowly, and maximal recovery may take many months or several years. You'll need regular checkups to make sure your recovery stays on track. If your injury is caused by a medical condition, your doctor will treat the underlying condition.
Neurapraxia is the mildest form of peripheral nerve injury commonly induced by focal demyelination or ischemia. In neurapraxia, the conduction of nerve impulses is blocked in the injured area.
Some nerve-related problems do not interfere with daily life. Others get worse quickly and may lead to long-term, severe symptoms and problems. When a medical condition can be found and treated, your outlook may be excellent. But sometimes, nerve damage can be permanent, even if the cause is treated.
Symptoms Related to Damaged Nerves
A burning sensation. A prickly feeling. Tingling. Numbness.
Most of the time, the pins and needles feeling is a good sign. It's a short-term phase that means nerves are coming back to life.
Nerve damage can usually be diagnosed based on a neurological examination and can be correlated by MRI scan findings. The MRI scan images are obtained with a magnetic field and radio waves. No harmful ionizing radiation is used.
A nerve injury can affect the brain's ability to communicate with muscles and organs. Damage to the peripheral nerves is called peripheral neuropathy. It's important to get medical care for a peripheral nerve injury as soon as possible. Early diagnosis and treatment may prevent complications and permanent damage.
For these mild nerve injuries, nonsurgical treatment options include medication, physical therapy or massage therapy. Peripheral nerve surgery can reconstruct or repair damaged nerves. You may need surgery to repair severely compressed nerves, cut nerves or nerves that are not healing on their own.
In many cases, supplementing with vitamin B-12 can reduce the pain associated with neuropathy. More rarely, it can help repair the myelin sheath, depending on the cause of the neuropathy. However, B-12's ability to speed up tissue regeneration and improve nerve function can be helpful for some.
As a specialist in peripheral nerve surgery, Dr. Seruya wants his patients to know that after a period of 12-18 months nerve damage can become permanent.
If your nerve is bruised or traumatized but is not cut, it should recover over 6-12 weeks. A nerve that is cut will grow at 1mm per day, after about a 4 week period of 'rest' following your injury. Some people notice continued improvement over many months.
Electromyography (EMG) is used to record the electrical activity in muscle. It can identify abnormalities in the muscles or nerves resulting from peripheral neuropathy, nerve degeneration or damage to the protective covering (myelin sheath) that surrounds the nerves in your brain or spinal cord.
Nerve conduction studies, including an Electromyogram (EMG) may be performed on individuals suffering with nerve pain symptoms. These studies use electrical impulses to determine the level of damage. A final diagnosis will be made by your physician through the help of one or all of these tests.
Electromyogram. An electromyogram evaluates how the nerves and muscles work together by measuring electrical impulses along nerves, nerve roots, and muscles. To perform this test, the doctor inserts a tiny needle—an electrode that conducts an electrical current—through the skin and into the muscle.
An EMG test helps find out if muscles are responding the right way to nerve signals. Nerve conduction studies help diagnose nerve damage or disease. When EMG tests and nerve conduction studies are done together, it helps providers tell if your symptoms are caused by a muscle disorder or a nerve problem.
While anxiety cannot lead to nerve damage that causes pain, it can actually intensify nerve pain caused by injury or accidental nerve damage.
A massage helps to reduce effects of injury by relieving compression of nerves an encouraging repair of damaged nervous tissues to increase. Relief of compressed nerves and healing of damaged nervous tissues reduces negative sensations such as pins and needles and numbness to improve sensation.
Go to a hospital or call your local emergency number (such as 911) if: You have weakness or are unable to move, along with numbness or tingling. Numbness or tingling occur just after a head, neck, or back injury. You cannot control the movement of an arm or a leg, or you have lost bladder or bowel control.
Sit on a chair with your hands behind your back and slump forward. Then bend your neck forward and lift one leg up with the toes pointed toward you. If this causes pain, you may have a nerve problem. Then try lifting your head a little and see if the pain lessens.
It's important to note that one of the biggest differences between nerve pain and muscle pain is chronic pain. Chronic pain is ongoing and constant. The damaged tissue that causes nerve pain often leads to chronic pain, leaving many patients to endure long-lasting side effects.