ABSTRACT
The most common cause of numbness isolated to a part of one hand are nerve root entrapment (fifth, sixth or seventh cervical) or a nerve entrapment syndrome (e.g. carpal tunnel syndrome or an ulnar nerve lesion). A cervical root problem that produces hand numbness or paraesthesiae is likely to be accompanied by limb or neck pain and possibly reflex changes. Finding degenerative changes in the cervical spine on X-ray is not sufficient to establish the changes as the basis for the patient’s symptoms. Degenerative changes in the neck in older patients are the norm.
