SLEEP-RELATED DISORDERS IN CARPAL-TUNNEL SYNDROME

Introduction - Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) often wake u p at night due to pain and numbness of affected fingers and hand. We s tudied the sleep disorder caused by CTS. Subjects and methods - 34 con secutive patients referred for operative treatment of CTS answered to a sleep questionnaire and the results were compared to a stratified ra ndom sample of 1600 Finns aged 36-50 year, whose response rate to the mailed questionnaires was 75.2% (n = 1186). Six CTS patients underwent a polygraphic sleep study before and after operative treatment of CTS . Results - CTS patients reported suffering from poor sleep quality, f ragmentary sleep and daytime sleepiness more often than controls. Befo re operative treatment of CTS there were more nocturnal body movements (p < 0.01) and awakenings lasted longer (p < 0.05) than after operati on. During preoperative sleep studies no drop in median nerve conducti on was detected during awakenings. Conclusions - Patients with CTS suf fer from fragmentary sleep. Although patients reported waking up for t he pain or numbness of hands no impairment in median and ulnar nerve c onduction could be observed during these awakenings. Operative treatme nt of hand entrapment significantly reduced the number of nocturnal mo vements.