EDUCATION CLINICAL REVIEW Carpal tunnel syndrome • Link to this article online for CPD/CME credits Scott D Middleton,1 Raymond E Anakwe2 1Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Royal Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most commonly diagnosed Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, SOURCES AND SELECTION CRITERIA compression neuropathy of the upper limb. Patients may UK We searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and the 2Department of Trauma and present to general practitioners, physiotherapists, hand Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Orthopaedic Surgery, St Mary’s therapists, or surgeons with a variety of symptoms. Sev- to identify source material for this review. We examined Hospital, Imperial College NHS eral studies have examined the epidemiology, diagno- available evidence published in the English language for Trust, London W1 2NY, UK Correspondence to: R E Anakwe sis, and treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. We review the diagnosis and treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome.
[email protected] these resources to provide an evidence based guide to The search terms used were “carpal tunnel”, “carpal Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g6437 the diagnosis and treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. tunnel syndrome”, “tingling fingers”, “median nerve doi: 10.1136/bmj.g6437 compression”, and “compression neuropathy”. There were no well conducted large randomised trials. We selected and What is carpal tunnel syndrome and who gets it? examined smaller randomised trials as well as case series, Carpal tunnel syndrome encompasses a collection of cohort studies, and observational reports where these symptoms: patients often mention altered sensation or provided the only evidence. pain in the hand, wrist, or forearm.