Braces for Cubital Tunnel?
Posted by Dolf Ichtertz on Thu, Jul 17, 2008 @ 04:14 PM
Carpal tunnel (aka carpal tunnel syndrome or CTS) is very common. The next most common nerve entrapment syndrome , cubital tunnel, occurs in as many as one out of five carpal tunnel sufferers. Careful evaluation at the time of seeing the hand surgery specialist will reveal tenderness of the ulnar nerve behind the "funny bone" or medial epicondyle. A firm tap with a finger may send a tingle down the forearm to the small finger side of the hand. Problems with this nerve precipitate the complaint of your hand going to sleep right away when talking on the phone, aching or cramping, loss of dexterity and dropping things also occur as with CTS. The two problems frequently occur simultaneously The main difference being that carpal tunnel does not cause weakness, cubital tunnel does in advanced cases and the small and ring fingers rather than the thumb, index, and long tingle, burn or ache.
Dr. Ichtertz has been providing a special elbow splint to prevent prolonged elbow flexion at night-the culprit in causing cubital tunnel. Splinting of th wrist has never solved a case of carpal tunnel but it often does for cubital tunnel. Use of a good quality telephone head set for those continuously on the phone is also a good idea. This can be monitored with a pressure specified sensory exam (PSSD). Note that about three out of ten afflicted people are going to go o to require a minor surgery to solve this problem; so if the symptoms are bad or do not respond promptly you need to consider evaluation by a board certified hand surgeon (Certificate of Added Qualifications in Surgery of the Hand). Though a neurologist may perform electrodiagnostic tests for nerve entrapment they can not treat carpal tunnel-it is a surgical disease.