Who’s afraid of the big bad nerve?

This fascinating study of almost 25,000 patients showed that “pinched nerves” (nerve root impingement, radiculopathy) is fairly rare in the general population — only 6% actually had it in the neck, and only 12% in the low back — and barely any higher in people who’ve had car accidents. You would certainly think that car accidents would cause more nerve root injuries, especially in the neck, but that is precisely what this study did not find. It identified only a small (2%) increase in the neck, and no difference at all in the low back. This is quite a counter-intuitive finding. I think that if you polled health professionals and patients and asked them “Do people who’ve had car accidents have more nerve injury?” you would get a much larger number.

So I get two interesting things out of this straightforward study: first, it’s yet another great example of how the spine is just not particularly fragile or prone to nerve injury; second, it’s terrific evidence that nerve pinches are really pretty rare overall, certainly relatively to what people fear. Yes, 12% is more than 1 in 10 people — hardly rare — but if you believe every patient who says “I have a pinched nerve,” the rate would be about 80%!