Has anyone undergone CTS surgery or surgery to relieve CTS? Mine is driving me crazy lately so much I have day dreams of cutting my hand off and getting a hook. Im wearing / sleeping in a metal lined brace, but its not letting up like it usually does.
Im interested in endoscopic treatment as im worried about loosing sensation of abilities post surgery; any info. appreciated.
Thanks,
MRA
My sister is having surgery this week. Not sure if that helps, but I can update you about her recovery and if it works.
Don’t do it. Surgery, that is.
Repetive Stress Injuries (not “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome”) is due to… repetitive use of your wrists which causes inflamation. To reduce the inflamation do several things: reduce the use of your hands in the manner that you are; apply alternating heat and cold therapy and (I am not a doctor but I’ve sustained a very serious injury to my non-shooting hand that has healed wonderfully so take it for what it’s worth) try anti-inflammatories such as LYPRINOX which is derived from New Zeland Green Mussel Shells. It works PHENOMENALLY WELL.
Try googling “Lyprinol, Lyprinex” or start here: http://www.lyprinolusa.com/
Let me know how well it works for you.
Had it in both hands. At work my hands would go numb and I would drop tools and such. At night I would wake up with both arms and hands numb and could not move them, had all the tests, it was due to carpal tunnel (mine was nerves being pinched in the canal). Did the carpal release operation on both hands back in 1992, have had no problems to date. Wife had one hand done about5-6 years ago, again no problems to date.
That said, I know of some cases where the surgery did not help at all.
PS: both my wife’s and my scars are hardly visible…
Try non surgery alternatives first. When all alternatives have been exhausted if no improvement then try surgery. I have seen the surgery be a success and failure so try the other first.
I had suffered from CTS for years. I ride a Harley and my hands would go numb riding, also in driving a car. I would have to alternate my hands and flex the off hand to relax it. As it got worse there was quite a bit of pain too. When it got to the point I was ready to chop my hands off I agreed to have the surgery done.
My left hand was worse, had it done in Dec '09 and had the right done in January. Very quick, simple surgery. I’m told it takes longer to prep for the surgery than to actually perform it. You do not want to do them both at once, learning to wipe left handed was bad enough …
I had the traditional surgery where the Doc makes a small (1 1/4 - 1 1/2") incision in the base of your hand. No pain afterward, the worst part was living with a soft cast on one hand for 10 days.
I temporarily lost a lot of grip strength, that’s all back now (three months later). I also had pain when I would push with the palm of my hand, like when doing push ups. I still have a small amount of this but it’s getting better all the time.
Now for the good news, my hands have not been numb or painful since the surgeries.
Had mine done a year ago. The numbness is gone but I can’t put a lot of weight on the inscision area. All in all I think it was worth it. The numbness drove me crazy.Take care of yourself and all the loved ones around you.
Yep, try the non-surgical alternatives first, especially the wrist splinting. Just be advised that almost 50 percent will NOT result in alleviation enough to satisfy most people. Once you reach the point that sleep is difficult, or that you start to drop things, prepare for the need for surgery.
While endoscopic surgery for CTS is good, results using open surgery has better results. Your wound will be 2 inches long or less, and if your surgeon is good, the procedure will be over in @ 15 minutes. It can be performed with local anesthetic, though those with very low pain tolerance may opt for a regional anesthesia block, or even GA.
The procedure is actually quite simple. It just involves cutting the skin of your palm, going through the subcutaneous tissue to get to the fibrous band that forms the roof of the carpal tunnel. Once located, the fibrous band is gently undermined to make sure no important structures inside will be inadvertently injured, then the band is snipped or cut apart. Your wound is then washed, and sutured full-thickness, meaning just one suture layer is done to rejoin your wound edges.
Post-operatively, you will have to wear a protective splint for 10-14 days, after which it is removed and rehab exercises, which have been begun while the wrist was in the splint, are continued until full function returns. numbness will be present in some cases, but invariably recovery will ensue, unless the surgery has been, ah, f*cked up.
Dangers during surgery involve inadvertently cutting the artery that runs in the lateral portion of the wound, or cutting important nerves that run medial to the wound. Again, a competent surgeon will be able to avoid 'em.
Good luck, sir. I hope this helps.
And, oh yes. have one hand done at a time. Having both hands in post-op splints sucks goat balls bigtime!
My wife had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands (in turn) about 4 years ago. Recovery was tedious and each took about a year to come back to proper mobility and strength, but both came back well. Eventually she got to where she could sew, do needlepoint, and shoot handguns with substantial recoil (M37 airweight, .45 LC SAA) without problems.
I had rotator cuff surgery on my shooting arm back in December so I am getting firsthand experience with that. Not 100% yet but pretty functional for anything reasonable (1911 .45 and .357 Mag., but no sudden draws).
Just be glad that there are ways to address these things as we approach geezerdom.
Mine were both done at the same time…not fun. I had PT, wife did not. Again, mine was 18 years ago, but I had full use of both hands after about 2 months. Grip strength was not a problem, I usually crush other’s hands (not intentionally), shooting a .44 mag is not a problem.
I had it in both hands. My thumb and ring finger would go so numb, and ache during the night that they would wake me out of a sound sleep. I would have to get up and swing my arm around in a circle to relieve the pain, then go back to bed for a little while again. The last time the wife kept telling me that was what it was, but I kept telling her that it was in my shoulder, because I thought that when I would work my arm in a circle it helped, but it was actually letting the swelling around my nerves go down by forcing it out centrifugally. I was at the time of the second hand, splicing wiring harnesses for some new Nissan trucks so we could convert them to be able to be driven from both sides of the truck, so there was a HELL of a lot of splicing to do. I lost my job doing it because I turned it in under L&I. But I was damn glad I did it, and 3 years since the last one I have had absolutely no problems.
I say if you have insurance get it done ASAP, and make sure before you go into surgery that the surgeon marks the correct hand, or like mine did he marked both so he would know for sure. You will be laid up with that hand for a couple weeks, but you will be damn glad you did it, providing you get a good surgeon. Mine was a sports surgeon and had a good reputation around town. And my wife works for the county in their benefits dept, and she had heard from their claims for their employees that he did good to every one of them.
Just Do It!
consult a chiropractor before you get surgery. They can usually resolve CTS.
Don’t do it, the surgery. Get some birch oil, apply to affected area 3x daily and you’ll forget about applying it within a week.
Another poster hit it right on the head: inflammation. Get rid of that and you’re golden.
Had it done two weeks ago in my left hand. Small - 2 inch- incision. Wore a soft cast for 7 days and had to keep it dry. Mobility in the fingers and thumb are much much better and almost no numbness. Going to have the right hand done at end of year. I will try the birch oil though. IF you’re anywhere near Florence, SC I can recommend Dr. Robert Moore. He saved my right hand from a terrible strep (yes the flesh eating bacterica kind) and did my carpal tunnel release on my left.
I am back at work after 10 days and hold heavy lead and tungsten vial shield (for nuclear medicine) with no pain.
I worked for Waylon Jennings in the 1990s and he had surgery for CTS and trigger finger on both hands at the same time (BIG mistake) around 1994. Besides the problems he had to endure while both hands were in a cast, the surgery didn’t fix the problems he had and eventually he couldn’t even hold a guitar pick anymore and he just had to use his thumb instead. I had to set up his guitars with an extremely low action and the lightest gauge strings I could find. Maybe he was misdiagnosed, maybe the surgery wasn’t done properly, but he regretted doing it for the rest of his life.
As others have said, try everything you can before resorting to surgery and if you think you have to, make sure you have a doctor that you know and trust and has a PROVEN track record of success with this particular procedure. Good luck and good health, I hope your condition improves without needing the knife.
[QUOTE][/QUOTE]
THAT. When they tested for me both times, they used electrical impulses on my fingers and sent the charge down threw my wrist, and it measured the time it took each finger to react and twitch. It didn’t hurt or anything, but it was funny to watch my fingers twitch out of my control. They didn’t twitch much at all, but it was funny looking. The time is measured in micro or nano seconds, but is a good way to diagnose it. And it tells just how severe or not it is.
I AM DAMN GLAD I HAD MINE DONE! But they were done separately, and I really have to look for a tinny little scare in the palm of my hand back to wards my wrist. One is about an 8th of an inch long and the other 3/16ths of an inch. I used to also get a feeling when I put my hands on the floor flat as in doing push ups, and it would feel like a real sharp needle being pushed in to my wrist and going straight up into my arm, and it would just give out it would hurt so bad. Now no problem and no numb fingers and thumbs.
I would damn well do it again without hesitation.
I had my right hand done in the summer of 2000 and my left hand in the spring of 2009. Well worth it!
My suggestion is that you should go to a highly recommended orthopedic or musculoskeletal doctor (orthopedic surgeon, physical medicine and rehabilitation, or sports medicine physician) to have this properly assessed. Also, it may not be a carpal tunnel syndrome, but something affecting the nerves higher up, more proximally, even in the neck.
Assuming it is carpal tunnel syndrome, wearing carpal tunnel splints at night and during the day if symptomatic (+/- anti inflammatories, if not contraindicated) is of great help as this will relieve pressure on the median nerve and give it a chance to recover and heal. Sometimes a carpal tunnel steroid injection may help as well, but if you are having lots of pain, numbness, and are developing weakness despite conservative measures, you ought to at least get a surgical consult.
You don’t want to just let it go to the point where you start to get significant numbness, or weakness, let alone atrophy in the muscles innervated by the Median nerve (the nerve entraped in the carpal tunnel), because you may reach a point where even surgical decompression may not result in getting total nerve function back. It may keep it from getting worse but you may be stuck with permanent median nerve damage.
I would also recommend having someone refer you to get a “nerve test” (electromyography/nerve conduction test) by someone skilled. This test will be very helpful in determining the location, type, severity, and acute or chronic nature of the problem. This will help decide whether the problem requires a surgical consult.
I hope that his helps. Good luck.
Had the elect impulse test also, that is how they determined mine was in the tunnel.
Wore the braces for about 6 months, did not help, that is when I had more test done, including x-rays of the tunnel, and the decision was made to do the surgery. I would do both at the same time again, even given the difficulty of certain tasks…