Injection?
Hi, I have been wearing my splint/s at night now for a few months, there has been a definate improvement( also probably helped as I have finished sewing a patchwork quilt that I have been doding for years!) I had hoped by now that my hands would be back to normal, but if I leave the splints off I am disturbed at night by numbness or mild pain that wakes me up. The right hand also goes numb sometimes at night even when wearing the splint.
I had hoped to avoid treatment altogether, but wonder if I should consider an injection now? Would be grateful for some advice. Thanks ceri
Hi Doctor, Another question I am afraid. I am overweight and last year put on nearly a stone more, would losing weight help at all do you think? ONe last ditch attempt to try to cure this myself before I resort to the injection?
It seems moderately likely that weight loss would help CTS - but it has never been tried in a formal trial so we do not know for sure. We do know that CTS gets commoner the more overweight you are and that weight seems to be an independently significant risk factor for developing CTS so logically losing weight should help. There have been reports of improvement of CTS in patients who lost very large amounts of weight after bariatric surgery in the USA but these are rather extreme cases and it may not be wise to generalise from that. Of course keeping one's weight within a healthy range is a good general advice for lots of reasons not just CTS. JB
One other thought, if you wanted to try an 'alternative' treatment - we are running a trial of ultrasound therapy for CTS. We really have no idea whether it works or not (or we wouldn't be doing the trial) but if you wanted to join that we are still recruiting patients and you would qualify. The major drawback I think is that you live quite a long way from Canterbury and it is a pretty intensive treatment regime for 7 weeks. JB
If you are still symptom free when wearing splints then it becomes very much a choice for you I think. The next treatment option would usually be injection which is a very minor intervention medically speaking so you just have to decide whether you prefer the continuing inconvenience of wearing splints at night or the minor discomfort of an injection - though of course the outcome of injection is not certain. If we get beyond the end of the year I would generally want to test again before reaching a decision but as your CTS was grade 2 in March I would be happy to arrange injection for you if you wish. JB