A retrospective study of 40 women with carpal tunnel syndrome developing in pregnancy and 18 women with carpal tunnel syndrome in the puerperium was undertaken. All the cases that developed in pregnancy occurred in the third trimester and resolved within two weeks of delivery. Those cases developing in the puerperium affected women who had breast-fed their infants and their symptoms lasted a mean of 5.8 months. These patients were older and more likely to be primiparous than if the condition occurred in pregnancy. All the pregnant women and none of the lactating women had symptoms of peripheral oedema. Spontaneous resolution with a good response to conservative measures occurred in both groups; only three cases were treated surgically. Residual clinical evidence of median nerve damage was present in 40% of all cases. Carpal tunnel syndrome which develops in pregnancy appears to be a separate clinical entity to that developing in the puerperium.
A retrospective study of 40 women with carpal tunnel syndrome developing in pregnancy and 18 women with carpal tunnel syndrome in the puerperium was undertaken. All the cases that developed in pregnancy occurred in the third trimester and resolved within two weeks of delivery. Those cases developing in the puerperium affected women who had breast-fed their infants and their symptoms lasted a mean of 5.8 months. These patients were older and more likely to be primiparous than if the condition occurred in pregnancy. All the pregnant women and none of the lactating women had symptoms of peripheral oedema. Spontaneous resolution with a good response to conservative measures occurred in both groups; only three cases were treated surgically. Residual clinical evidence of median nerve damage was present in 40% of all cases. Carpal tunnel syndrome which develops in pregnancy appears to be a separate clinical entity to that developing in the puerperium.
CTS following delivery of their infants, of whom 35 had sought the help of their general practitioner. All the general practitioners were contacted and the diagnosis of CTS was confirmed in 27 women. These women formed the basis of this study.The average age of the study group was 31.5 years (range 26-38 years). Seventy-four per cent of the women were primiparous, 18% had a parity of 2 and 8% had a parity of 3. The multiparous women had had no symptoms of CTS in their earlier pregnancies. Symptoms of painless paraesthesia of a median nerve distribution developed 3.5 (±1.3 SD) weeks postdelivery (Table 1). Twenty-four of the 27 women breastfed their babies, and in all these women, symptoms continued for at least one month. The three women who did not breast feed had mild symptoms, which had completely settled within one month of their onset. Both hands were affected in 81% of women. Only two women (7%) had had symptoms of CTS prior to their pregnancies. No patient had a family history of CTS or had had pre-eclampsia complicating their pregnancies.The mean duration of symptoms for the breastfeeding group was 6.5 (±3.0 SD) months (Table 1).In all the patients the paraesthesia was initially painless, however, in 25 women, symptoms progressed to painful paraesthesia. These 25 women were all woken by their pain several times at night. Sixteen women found that their symptoms were severe enough to affect their ability to look after their infants. Seventy-four per cent of the women considered
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