Emily Garcia, a 40-year-old electrician, has neck stiffness and arm numbness/tingling that follows the medial arm after a motor vehicle accident. According to Souza, what percentage of TOS physical therapists acquire TOS due to trauma?

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Trauma can precipitate thoracic outlet syndrome by disrupting structures at the outlet—scalene muscle spasm, rib or clavicle alignment changes, or soft tissue tightness that compresses the brachial plexus and nearby vessels. In the literature cited, about forty percent of physical therapists with TOS report trauma as the trigger for their symptoms. That makes trauma a fairly common initiating factor, which is why this percentage is the best match for the question. So in a post-accident presentation with neck stiffness and arm numbness or tingling, trauma-related TOS is a plausible explanation. The other percentages don’t align with the cited data.