| Southeast neurosurgeons offers patients innovative endoscopic procedure for carpal tunnel relief |
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It can happen to anyone. Cape Girardeau neurosurgeon Scott R. Gibbs, M.D., M.A. has seen it in meat cutters, computer programmers and operating room nurses. It’s aggravating, and it hurts.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), a repetitive strain injury caused by a pinched nerve in the wrist, affects one in 10 Americans. CTS does not discriminate, he adds. "Young people get it, usually because of repetitive strain injury. In older individuals, carpal tunnel syndrome may be associated with other medical conditions such as arthritis."
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The most compelling symptom that drives people to seek relief from CTS is the disturbance in sleep, Gibbs says.
"When a person wakes up three or four times a night with tingling and/or numbness in the hand, it doesn’t take long to become sleep deprived."
When CTS is the diagnosis, Gibbs generally encourages patients to first try anti-inflammatory medications, wrist splints and reduction of repetitive stress. |
The good news is that more than 90 percent of people with CTS can recover fully with appropriate treatment. |
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If those measures do not significantly reduce pressure on the median nerve, surgery may be an option.
Endoscopic carpal tunnel release, an innovative procedure that is minimally invasive, causes patients less discomfort and allows a quicker return to work or normal activities.
Since Gibbs began performing endoscopic carpal tunnel release a number of years ago, he has further refined it to "no stitch" surgery. Patients may elect to have either a regional or general anesthetic for the short outpatient procedure, which utilizes an endoscope (a small fiberoptic TV camera) to look into the carpal tunnel through a tiny incision in the wrist. The pinpoint wrist and palmar incisions require only small bandages and a splint, and only for 10 days.
Traditional open carpal tunnel release, which requires an incision of an inch or more down the middle of the palm, is also an appropriate approach. "This is a time-tested operation that has been done over 50 years," Gibbs says. "But patients like the idea of no stitches."
The success rate for endoscopic carpal tunnel release, which is offered at Southeast Missouri Hospital’s Regional Brain and Spine Center, is excellent, Gibbs adds. "Ninety-six percent of patients experience complete relief of symptoms, and recurrence is very rare with this procedure."
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| What is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? |
| Small bones at the base of the hand called the carpals, and a connecting tissue spanning them, form a tunnel-like structure. Tendons, the connecting bands of tissue between the muscles and the bones they move, and the median nerve that carries signals between the hand and spinal cord pass through this tunnel. If the tendons become swollen, as can happen with overuse, the swelling can pinch the nerve causing the pain, tingling and numbness of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). |
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Symptoms
- Numbness, tingling and pain in the thumb, index, middle and/or ring fingers that often gets worse at night
- Pain that shoots from the hand up the arm occasionally as far as the shoulder
- A swollen feeling in the fingers – although they may not be visibly swollen
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