Neuropathic Arm Pain Differential Diagnoses

Differential Diagnoses

• Spinal cord injury
• Cervical Radicular Pain
• Median Nerve
  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
  • Pronator Teres Syndrome
  • Anterior Interosseous Nerve Syndrome
  • Supracondylar Process Syndrome
• Ulnar Nerve
  • Cubital Tunnel Syndrome (Ulnar neuropathy at the elbow)
  • Guyon's Canal Syndrome
• Radial Nerve
  • Radial Neuropathy at the Spiral Groove (Saturday Night Palsy)
  • Posterior Interosseous Nerve Entrapment (at arcade of Frohse)
  • Wartenberg Syndrome (superficial radial nerve at the distal forearm)
  • Humeral Shaft Fracture
• Other Peripheral Nerve Lesions
  • Suprascapular Nerve Entrapment (at suprascapular notch or spinoglenoid notch)
  • Shoulder Dislocation (Axillary nerve)
  • Long Thoracic Nerve Injury
  • Lateral Antebrachial Cutaneous Nerve Entrapment
• Brachial Plexus Lesions
  • Neuralgic Amyotrophy (Parsonage-Turner syndrome)
  • Neurogenic Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
  • Erb-Duchenne Palsy
  • Klumpke's Palsy
  • Burner or stinger
  • Backpacker's palsy
  • Traumatic nerve root avulsion
  • Hereditary Neuralgic Amyotrophy
  • Neoplasms
  • Radiation-induced brachial plexopathy
  • Iatrogenic plexopathies (e.g. medial brachial fascial compartment syndrome)
  • Diabetic-related brachial plexopathy
• Systemic
  • Thalamic Pain Syndrome
  • Hemiplegic migraine
  • Focal sensory seizures
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Axillary vein thrombosis or Paget-Schroetter disease
  • Fibromyalgia or Myofascial Pain Syndrome
  • Herpes Zoster
  • Mononeuritis Multiplex
  • Multifocal Motor Neuropathy

Further Reading

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