A traffic jam on a busy highway is a universally unpleasant experience. One possible cause of such a bottleneck is the narrowing of the road. This reduction of lanes causes essential goods and messages that used to flow through the path easily to be impeded, and can lead to downstream negative effects.
This is similar to the mechanisms that cause the week’s zebra, thoracic outlet syndrome. In our bodies, nerves and blood vessels travel from the neck to the arm through a narrow space called the thoracic outlet. Sometimes, due to various reasons like muscle tightness or abnormal bone structures, this space becomes even narrower.
This "bottleneck" can compress the nerves and/or blood vessels. If the nerves are affected, this usually leads to symptoms like pain, numbness, or tingling in the arms and hands. If the veins are affected, then the usual presentation is arm swelling, bluish discoloration, and a feeling of fullness in the arm. If the arteries are affected, then this presents as coldness, numbness, pain, and white discoloration, sometimes accompanied by cramping of the forearm and hand, especially with activity. Treatment can start conservatively but often requires surgery to widen the area of passage of the affected structures, and could include removal of the first rib.
To learn more about the diagnosis and treatment of thoracic outlet syndrome, watch the dedicated Osmosis video on YouTube and Osmosis.org
