|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Amy Norton
SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 02 (Reuters Health) - People with the repetitive stress injury carpal tunnel syndrome can be treated with everything from painkillers to surgery, but for many patients the problem may simply go away, Italian researchers said on Thursday.
In a study of 354 patients referred to surgeons at eight centers in Italy, investigators found that for about one third of the patients, time healed at least some wounds. Over the course of about one year, more than 200 of the study patients were left untreated, only "sporadically" using anti-inflammatory medication when they needed pain relief. By the end of the study, patients' reports and tests of nerve function in the wrist showed that 34% had seen their symptoms improve, while 21% had worsened.
The findings show that carpal tunnel syndrome can often resolve on its own, and that surgery may be an overused treatment strategy, Dr. Roberto Padua of San Giacomo Hospital in Rome told Reuters Health.
He presented his team's findings here at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
Marked by numbness and tingling in the hand and wrist, and pain that can extend up to the shoulder, carpal tunnel syndrome may be caused by work or hobbies that involve repetitive motions of the upper limbs. Swelling in the wrist compresses nerves that travel from the forearm to the hand through a "tunnel" in the wrist. Treatment includes painkillers, braces, steroid injections into the joint, and surgery to "release" the ligament that runs through the tunnel and puts pressure on nerves.
While surgery may be necessary for some patients, Padua said, he and his colleagues wanted to discern which patients do well with minimal treatment. They found that the younger a patient was, the better the chances of improving without therapy. For each year in a patient's age, Padua reported, the odds of improving without treatment declined 4%.
In addition, having carpal tunnel syndrome in only one hand boosted the odds of improvement: patients with two injured limbs were 70% less likely to see their symptoms ease.
Padua said doctors should take patients' age into consideration when deciding treatment, holding off on surgery for younger ones. He said he favors several months of conservative treatment unless the patient's symptoms are severe and long-standing.
| Health Topics | Drug Information | Dictionaries | Directories | Other Resources |
|
U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
Copyright and Privacy Policy, We welcome your comments. Last updated: 05 March 2001 |