Understanding Upper Back Pain on the Left Side
Experiencing upper back pain, particularly focused on the left side, can greatly disrupt your daily life. The upper back, known medically as the thoracic spine, provides stability and support for movement, houses spinal cord nerves, and protects internal organs.
There are numerous potential contributing factors to left-sided mid or upper back pain. Identifying the underlying cause guides appropriate treatment to relieve discomfort and restore normal function.
Common Types of Upper Back Pain
Some varieties of upper back pain include:
- Muscle tension, strain, or spasm
- Joint dysfunction or arthritis along the spine
- Nerve compression or irritation
- Overuse injuries of the shoulder blade area
- Spinal disc herniation between vertebrae
Lets explore some common culprits behind left side upper back pain and strategies to alleviate discomfort.
Muscular Upper Back Pain
The muscles lining the mid and upper spine allow the back to bend, twist, lift objects, and facilitate proper posture and movement. If these muscles become injured, tight, or severely spasm, upper back pain can result.
Muscle pain may feel like an ache or stabbing sensation worsened by certain positions. Daily life strains these muscle groups through activities involving hunching forward, lifting, stretching upwards, or repeatedly using one arm.
Relieving Muscle Pain Flare-Ups
Gentle stretching, massage, ice packs, anti-inflammatory medication, and modifying aggravating movements can help calm spasmed thoracic back muscles. Long term strengthening exercise improves flexibility to prevent recurrent pain.
Upper Back Joint Dysfunction
The joints between vertebrae in the upper back can develop arthritis and stiffness over time or due to injury. These spinal levels allow for rotation to reach and twist the upper body.
If inflammation and joint degeneration disrupt proper mobility, it manifests as localized upper back discomfort, especially when turning left or right.
Soothing Arthritic Back Joints
Gentle mobilization of stiff spine joints by a physical therapist combined with anti-inflammatory drugs, hot/cold therapy, supported posture, and balancing rest with activity helps arthritis upper back pain.
Nerve-Related Upper Back Discomfort
Pressure, irritation, or damage to nerves exiting the spinal cord in the thoracic region causes neurological symptoms. Nerves control muscle activation and sensation in the trunk, arms and hands.
Nerve-based upper back pain may include burning, tingling, or numbness in surrounding regions coupled with tenderness of tissues overlying irritated nerve roots.
Pacifying Irritated Upper Back Nerves
Identifying and resolving sources of nerve impingement combined with nerve gliding exercises, physical therapy, and medications to reduce nerve-related inflammation help subdue discomfort stemming from neurological dysfunction.
Additional Origins of Mid Back Pain
Other causes of upper back pain include spine trauma like vertebral fractures, disc ruptures, or ligament tears leading to structural instability. Rarely tumors or infection affecting the thoracic vertebrae manifest as localizing pain warranting prompt medical evaluation.
Why Does My Upper Back Hurt More on the Left Side?
Experiencing upper back pain isolated to or favoring one side points physicians toward distinct etiologies. Several factors explain why your upper back may hurt more on the left rather than evenly across the entire back.
Dominant Arm Overuse
Most individuals are right-handed, relying on their left shoulder, arm, and upper back for many daily tasks. Repetitive reaching, lifting, carrying, pulling, pushing, and overhead motion strains the muscles and joints asymmetrically.
This pattern of overuse on the left upper back provokes localized muscular trigger points, joint irritation, and nerve impingement contributing to one-sided pain.
Structural Alignment Factors
Leg length discrepancies, uneven shoulder heights, scoliosis spine curvature, and distorted pelvic orientation enhance mechanical dysfunction preferentially on one side of the body.
For example, the left upper back may undergo excessive muscular strain trying to compensate for right-dominant scoliosis mid-spine curvature during daily activities.
Injury-Related Trauma
Falling onto your left shoulder or blunt force blows to the left mid back region incite traumatic damage to the muscles, bones, joints, nerves and discs provoking lingering pain. Re-injury risk escalates without proper rest and rehabilitation.
In some cases, past old injuries or fractures lead to post-traumatic arthritis or soft tissue dysfunction flare-ups long after the initial damage healed.
Referred Pain
Disease or dysfunction involving the left lung, spleen, kidney or other organs can generate pain signals actually sensed in the upper back. Inflammation or irritation from another area travels along nerve networks into portions of the left mid back.
Your doctor thoroughly evaluates other potential causes before deeming upper back pain to stem from referred pain mechanisms.
Professional Evaluation for Left Upper Back Pain
Trying simple at-home interventions like heat, gentle stretches and over-the-counter pain relief medication often eases mild or moderate musculoskeletal upper back pain. But worsening or persistent left-sided discomfort warrants an appointment with your doctor.
Thorough Medical History
When assessing left upper back pain, your physician inquires about critical components of your health history including:
- Onset and duration of symptoms
- Location and quality of pain
- Aggravating and relieving factors
- Prior trauma
- Changes to sensation or strength
This helps characterize pain patterns that narrow potential causes.
Physical Examination Testing
A structured physical exam evaluates the mobility, tenderness, and function of your entire spine and left upper back. Special tests assess surrounding joints, muscular provocation, nerve tension signs, and spinal alignment.
Your strength, reflexes, and sensation undergo assessment searching for neurological deficits. Heart, lung, abdominal and shoulder exams screen for referred pain origins.
Potential Imaging and Specialty Referrals
If a dangerous spinal condition seems probable based on red flag symptoms, prompt imaging like x-ray, MRI or CT scans aid diagnosis. Diagnostic injections may be considered for nerve irritation sources. Referral to pain medicine, orthopedic spine surgery or physiatry guides optimal treatment planning.
Accurate targeting and successful relief of your unpleasant left upper back pain relies upon piecing together key findings from your medical workup.
Most Effective Treatments for Upper Back Pain
Treatment targets the specific root sources inciting left upper back pain based upon your thorough diagnosis. General treatment options include:
1. Hot/Cold Therapy
Alternating hot packs and ice massage decreases muscular spasm while limiting inflammation-mediated irritation of injured structures.
2. Medications
Over-the-counter Tylenol and NSAIDs like ibuprofen alleviate inflammatory and nerve-related pain components. For severe cases, short-term prescription muscle relaxants or steroids inject tremendous anti-inflammatory effects.
3. Physical Therapy
Hands on joint and soft tissue mobilization, therapeutic exercise, neuromuscular re-education, posture training, activity modification and modalities like ultrasound target specific pain generators.
4. Spinal Injections
Injecting corticosteroid medication or numbing agents into spinal joints, muscular trigger points or near pinched nerves provides diagnostic clarity while smoothing local irritation.
5. Surgery
If conservative treatment fails to resolve ongoing disabling upper back symptoms, surgical options like disectomy, fracture stabilization or spinal fusion aim to decompress compromised nervous structures.
Multimodal pain-relieving therapies synergize together for optimal probability of significant lasting relief from nagging upper back pain.
Preventing Left Upper Back Pain Flare-Ups
Several strategies including:
- Posture training
- Regular exercise
- Stress management
- Ergonomic modifications
- Mindful movement patterns
lessen risk for recurrent bouts of symptomatic left upper back pain following successful treatment.
Adequate rest periods between aggravating heavy activity coupled with spinal stabilization limits muscular overexertion strain. Your physical therapist customizes a strengthening program to bolster weak areas prone to injury.
Implementing targeted prevention methods reduces the likelihood of repeat left-sided upper back pain relapses, keeping you active and free from disability.
FAQs
What does upper back pain feel like?
Upper back pain may feel like muscle tightness, stabbing/shooting pains, aching, burning, tenderness, or stiffness centered in the thoracic spine region between the base of the neck and top of low back.
What helps ease upper back pain?
Applying heat packs, gentle stretching, massage, pain relievers like NSAIDs, posture correction, chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy exercises, and spinal injections can help calm upper back pain flare ups based on the underlying cause.
Is upper back pain serious?
While most upper back pain stems from benign muscular strain or joint dysfunction, severe or progressive neurological symptoms can indicate spinal conditions requiring prompt medical evaluation, like fractures, infection, or tumors.
How long does it take for upper back pain to heal?
Acute upper back pain from muscular, disc, or minor joint injuries often improves within several days to weeks with conservative treatment. Longstanding chronic arthritis, spinal misalignment, or nerve damage may require ongoing pain management.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.
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