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1st appeared 25 September 1998 Study Shows Effects of Pressure on the Carpal Tunnel UCSF researchers have developed a new animal model to study carpal tunnel syndrome and have shown that high pressure to this area in the wrist damages its structure as well as decreases nerve activity. "This model may help us determine how much pressure to the carpal tunnel is too much for humans and further allow us to develop and test treatments for carpal tunnel syndrome," said Edward Diao, assistant professor and chief, hand and microvascular surgery, department of orthopaedic surgery. Diao and his colleagues presented their study findings at the annual meeting for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand on September 10. The researchers studied carpal tunnel syndrome in sixteen rabbits. They inserted inflatable plastic balloon catheters or tubes into one carpal tunnel of each animal, so that with balloon inflation, the median nerve of the carpal tunnel would be compressed. Balloon pressures comparable to pressures experienced by humans were tested and for each animal, an uninflated balloon catheter was inserted into the carpal tunnel of the opposite side as the control. Researchers measured the time it took for carpal tunnel syndrome to develop by examining nerve activity in each animal. Study findings showed the higher the pressure, the less time required for carpal tunnel syndrome to develop. The carpal tunnel is the space in the wrist where a major nerve, the median nerve, resides, said Diao. The median nerve is vulnerable to injury and compression or pressure to this nerve results in pain, numbness or tingling to the fingers -- symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. This syndrome may result from repetitive activity of the hands or heavy lifting, he added. "Carpal tunnel syndrome has become an epidemic," according to Diao. "Over a ten year period, the incidence of reported carpal tunnel syndrome has increased about ten fold." Links: source: Lordelyn P. del Rosario, News Services |
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