Cervical Spine

Classic Patterns of Cervical Radiculopathy

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			Abnormalities
Nerve root	Interspace	Pain distribution	Motor	Sensory	Reflex
C4	C3–C4	Lower neck, trapezius	NA	Cape distribution (i.e., lower neck and upper shoulder girdle)	NA
C5	C4–C5	Neck, shoulder, lateral arm	Deltoid, elbow flexion	Lateral arm	Biceps
C6	C5–C6	Neck, dorsal lateral (radial) arm, thumb	Biceps, wrist extension	Lateral forearm, thumb	Brachioradialis
C7	C6–C7	Neck, dorsal lateral forearm, middle finger	Triceps, wrist flexion	Dorsal forearm, long finger	Triceps
C8	C7-C8	Neck, medial forearm, ulnar digits	Finger flexors	Medial forearm, ulnar digits	NA
T1	C8-T1	Ulnar forearm	Finger intrinsics	Ulnar forearm	NA

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NA = not applicable.

Information from references 3 and 4.

 The nerve roots exit above their correspondingly numbered vertebral body from C2-C7. C1 exits between the occiput and atlas, and C8 exits below the C7 vertebral body.

A C4-C5 disc herniation will compress the C5 nerve root
A C5-C6 disc herniation will compress the C6 nerve root
A C6-C7 disc herniation will compress the C7 nerve root
A C7-T1 disc herniation will compress the C8 nerve root
A T1-T2 disc herniation will compress the T1 nerve root