Shoulder pain radiated to upper back

Dear Ask The Doctor: I have this burning sensation type of pain in my upper shoulder and back area on the left side. It has been doing this on and off for a few years but these last few weeks it's been constant. I don't recall anything specifically I've done to it to make it hurt. I can just be sitting at my computer at work and it will start hurting. The pain seems to be getter worse and more often. What could it be?

Dear Mona: The pain in your shoulder and upper back as you described may be   due  to a cervical nerve compression , but it would be also important to rule out inflammation of the peripheral nerves at the level of the arm and hand. In the younger patients, as you, cervical radiculopathy may be a result of a disc herniation or an acute injury causing impingement of an exiting nerve. In the older patient, cervical radiculopathy is often a result of spinal canal narrowing from bone (osteophyte) formation, decreased disc height and degenerative changes due to aging process. The treatment strategy usually includes: physical therapy program aimed to reduce pain and inflammation, and the use of anti-inflammatory medication (“Motrin”, “Aleve”), also a re-education of your habits and posture to improve quality of life, try to recognize if staying too much in front of the computer is causing the pain and take frequent brakes with stretching exercises of the neck and upper back. You should be independent in a stretching and strengthening program and continue with these exercises under the periodic supervision of a physical therapist initially and then completely on your own. Patients whose condition fails to improve with a comprehensive rehabilitation program and selective injections should be presented with a surgical evaluation. Often, patients should show progressive improvement over the first 6-8 weeks with conservative treatment. If there is no significant improvement in this time frame, consider a surgical evaluation.