It is popularly and improperly referred to as a crossed nerve to indicate that particular condition of sharp, stabbing pain that arises abruptly in certain muscle areas often after a longer or shorter period during which a certain position has been maintained.
Symptomatology
Symptomatology varies from district to district:
- Limbs (upper or lower): cramp with intense tingling with significant limitation of movement may be detected;
- Back: often the pain has the characteristic of piercing, especially when it arises in the interscapular area. The Trapezius muscle is usually involved;
- Cervical spine: classic torticollis is a prime example. A stabbing pain in the neck following an abrupt movement of the head(see post torticollis).
Cause
A common cause of these pains is certainly not the displacement of nerves, which always remain in their place (well protected by muscles, fascia, and bony tracts). It is, rather an inflammation derived from excessive muscle contraction that causes a so-called muscle trigger point.
The parts of the body affected by muscle contracture are sometimes very painful, often stiff to the touch, hard and not very pliable precisely because they are contracted. These acute events are often caused by:
- Stress
- Sedentariness
- Incorrect postures
- Intense physical activity,
- Sudden climate change
Therapy
The natural remedies used against these muscle spasms are diverse and mainly involve the use of:
- Creams that produce heat on contact with the body;
- Painkillers used in abundance, while mitigating the acute symptomatology, do not solve the cause of the problem;
- Physiotherapy . Among the most commonly used techniques are: the Mezieres Method, decontracting massage therapy, myofascial manual massage, and theca therapy. A good physiotherapist will also, in addition to solving the acute problem, instruct on the correct exercises to do and useful for improving muscle tone, relaxing and lengthening muscles. Therefore, it is possible to prevent contractures, muscle tension, and that nagging overlapping nerve sensation with targeted manual therapies.
Useful tips
Beyond the acute event, the troublesome “nerve overlap” was said to find its origin in muscle contractures often caused by improper posture of the head, back, and arms during daily life. Hence it follows that the prevention of these phenomena comes through:
- Maintaining correct posture when forced to stand still for long periods (especially in the workplace, desk, pc terminal, car, airplane, etc.);
- Performance of regular but, above all, proper physical activity, including extensive pre-activity muscle warm-up and post-activity muscle-stretching phases.
Surgical therapies
When planning surgical therapy, it must always be considered that a scar is replaced, however, by a new scar.
Surgery can be used to change the position, width, or shape of the scar or to decrease the tension of a scarring outcome by improving the function of the affected area.
- Intralesional excision of the scar without its complete excision. Valid technique for keloid-type lesions.
- Complete excision of the scar. Technique used for hypertrophic scars. If scar excision results in major tissue loss, repair with proximal flaps or full-thickness skin grafts can be opted for. These techniques are generally used only for larger lesions. However, the likelihood of reforming a poor-quality scar remains high.
- “Z” or “W” shaped plastics: surgical techniques that can reposition or change direction to the scar, interrupt its traction, or improve its flexibility. They are mainly used for retracting scars.
- Cosmetic microsurgery techniques: very small cylinders of scar tissue are taken and replaced by as many micro-cylinders of healthy skin. The treatment is performed in several sessions and can be accompanied by other techniques such as laser.
- Lipofilling. Latest frontier of aesthetic medicine applied to the treatment of scars. This is the transfer of fat cells from certain sites to the scar. With lipoaspirate, mesenchymal stem cells and autologous chemical mediators are also injected, which promote reparative processes by physiologically modulating the body’s own processes in the healing phase.
Before proceeding with scar revision surgery, it is necessary to wait at least one year, a period of time in which wound maturation processes occur and are completed.
