[Radicular and pseudoradicular symptoms of the middle and lower cervical vertebral column (author's transl)].

The differential diagnostic classification of the "shoulder-hand-syndrome" according to etiology and pathophysiological principles is of major importance. The radicular syndrome, subsumed as the shoulder-hand syndrome following a local lesion, must be exactly defined. The pseudoradicular syndrome, which frequently appears clinically in the cervical region under the guise of middle and lower cervical syndrome, has its cause in disturbed function of the vertebral joints. But it can also arise as a mixed syndrome, radicular and pseudoradicular, through a substantial root lesion. The diagnosis of a referred pain in a "shoulder-hand syndrome" can lead to the discovery of internal organic lesions or lesions of the locomotor apparatus of the extremities.