What's New / Changelog
For people returning to the site this is a quck route to what has changed recently covering new pages added and new medical evidence incorporated into existing pages, but not minor corrections/spelling errors!
9.7.23 - A new, implausible, 'alternative' treatment has been added to the page describing unproven treatments - light therapy
28.7.20 - As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic many changes have been made to the CTS management pathway in East Kent over the last few months. The patient information page and GP information page have been extensively updated to deal with these and will continue to be updated more or less weekly
19.3.19 - The prognostic model is now live on the website. This uses information from the questionnaire and your nerve conduction results to give you an idea of whether you are a 'good' candidate for carpal tunnel surgery or not. The model can be accessed from the 'My CTS' pages
20.7.18 - Broken links removed relating to one-stop carpal tunnel services which no longer seem to exist.
24.5.18 - The site privacy policy has been updated in line with the EU GDPR regulations coming into force tomorrow.
23.10.17 - a new page has been added examining recent evidence regarding a possible role for vitamn D in CTS
11.9.17 - The section on ultrasound examination after surgery has been moved and expanded and some new material has been added on the relationship between trigger digits and CTS
15.8.17 - Yet another 'alternative' treatment added to the list - injection of platelet-rich plasma. The page on steroid treatment has been updated with two newly published studies of long-term outcome in patients treated with steroids suggesting that a significant minority of patients may not need surgery.
5.4.17 - A detailed personal account of carpal tunnel surgery and recovery has been added to the surgery section.
20.8.16 - New section on "Oscillatory biofield therapy" added to the alternative treatments page. New section on the rate of recovery after surgery added to the surgery page.
19.6.16 - New data on time to return to work after surgery added to the surgery page
2.5.16 - Additonal data on prognostic factors for steroid injection added to the non-surgical prognosis page. Minor additions to the measuring CTS page relating to the interpretation of SSS and FSS scores
2.10.15 - Information on how we use your data is found in several different pages of the site so I have provided an index to data protection, research and confidentiality to make it easier to find.
27.9.15 - The section in the surgical prognosis page on diabetes has been updated (Thanks to Harry Belcher for pointing out that this needed doing)
23.8.15 - The pages relating to the global treatment outcome scale used in Canterbury and the Canterbury NCS severity scale for CTS have been brought together under a new section covering all aspects of how we can measure CTS
22.8.15 - Two additional sections added to the Surgery page addressing the issues of whether surgery is always necessary and what the long-term outcomes are like
21.8.15 - A section has been added to the steroid treatment page giving a short summary of a study we have just published addressing the question of whether injection prejudices the outcome of later surgery. The section on CTS, Breast Cancer and Lymphoedema has also been updated
8.8.15 - The Surgery page has been updated to include a section on post-operative care and a brief mention of some of the newer experimental surgical techniques for CTS.
7.8.15 - In an attempt to make it easier for people to find the answers to some common questions I have started to create a 'Frequently asked questions' page. I have also added some new links (see the section on quality of health information on the web) and a page about the Canterbury CTS clinic
6.7.15 - Although the site is about carpal tunnel syndrome it has become clear that some patients with ulnar nerve problems also make their way here so I have added a page describing the various problems that occur with the ulnar nerve - probably the second commonest cause of tingling fingers.
25.5.15 - In response to concerns regarding data usage and privacy a page has been added explaining what we use the data collected via this site for and why
22/11/14 - A new page has been added beginning to address the difficult question of whether to operate on very advanced (grade 6 or extremely severe) CTS
26/8/14 - Version 2 of the website is now live. Changes include a requirement to provide a validated email for registration and enhanced email options including the facility to get an email notification when there is a reply to a forum posting. The new version requires a different format of Canterbury ID which looks something like EKH123456X - if you are having trouble with creating an acount please email Dr Bland
26/2/14 - We now have a fairly good answer to the question often posed by patients before local steroid injection for carpal tunnel syndrome "Will it hurt?" - the answer can be found in our Injection FAQ List
17/2/14 - Yet another new 'treatment' added to the alternatives page - an attempt to disrupt the transverse carpal ligament with a needle.
13/9/13 - A summary of a fascinating study of second attempt (and third/fourth atempt) carpal tunnel surgery (Zieske 2013) has been added to the page dealing with failed surgery
7/9/13 - A very important trial of stroid injection has just been published (Atroshi 2013) and it's results have been incorporated into the page dealing with steroid injection as a treatment and into the important trials page.
23.8.13 - New data on the natural history of untreated CTS added to the non-surgical prognosis page
16.8.13 - New data relating to injection after failed surgery added to the failed surgery page.
26.7.13 - A new page has been added devoted to a detailed discussion of the co-occurrence of a group of conditions which are commonly seen together in the same hand - CTS, Trigger finger and Dupuytren's contracture.
12.7.13 - Results of a trial of treatment by progesterone injection added and an index list created for the alternative treatments page.
25.6.13 - Information relating to the PiNS study added to the site - volunteers are needed for a study which attempts to help underatand the mechanisms of pain in CTS.
23.6.13 - Revised the section dealing with nerve conduction studies to clarify some terminology, better explain the logic behind doing the tests and mention who actually carries them out as this area is becoming confused by changes in healthcare.
21.6.13 - The steroid treatment page has been extended with a discussion of treatment using second and subsequent steroid injections based on three recently published papers.
19.6.13 - Alternative treatments page updated to include the results of a fairly decent trial of the C-Trac device
24.5.13 - Users may have noticed that we have been getting increasing amounts of 'spam' - adverts and junk texts with links to various dubious websites in the discussion forums. We have therefore implemented a filtering system (Mollom) which will hopefully prevent this sort of abuse of the site. If legitimate users encounter problems using the forums please email me.
27.4.13 - Steroid treatment page updated and a new photograph added (thankyou to the patient who kindly allowed me to use this)
29.1.13 - New references added relating to acupuncture for CTS in the other treatments page. This page is becoming unwieldy and needs sorting into some form of order and internal links providing from a list at the top.
24.9.12 - A preliminary report of the outcome of an important steroid trial in Sweden has just become publically available and is detailed in the trials page under Atroshi 2009.
10.9.12 - An announcements page has been added to the information for Kent patients as a place where late availability of NCS appointments or surgery slots can be 'advertised'
14.8.12 - Links to formal guidelines for the investigation and treatment of CTS published by national medical societies added to the links page.
11.7.12 - Extensive re-write of the non-surgical prognosis page to incorporate more date from the medical literature
3.7.12 - Example case of late recurrence of CTS after surgery added to the ultrasound pages.
25.6.12 - Further meta-analytic data (Lozano Calderon 2008) added to the discussion of work as a cause of CTS on the epidemiology page
24.6.12 - Paragraph added to the injection page referring to the aparently non-critical nature of the exact site of injection and notes added to surgical prognosis on re-innervation hyperaesthesia. Section on treatment with injections with local anaesthetics added to alternative treatments.
21.6.12 - Notes on a small study comparing steroid injection with and without the aid of ultrasound guidance added to the page on steroid injection - as there is considerable enthusiasm in some quarters for this method. A suggestion that rifampicin might be a useful treatment for CTS added to the alternative treatments page.
15.6.12 - new experimental data related to pain on injection added to the section on treatment by steroid injection
3.6.12 - link to UK department of work and pensions criteria for work related CTS disability benefit added to the CTS and Work section
27.5.12 - A summary of a trial comparing different steroid injection doses for CTS added to the notes on significant trials
6.4.12 - A paragraph dealing with return to work after surgery has been added to the surgery page.
29.3.12 - Paragraphs on the importance of gender/sex hormones in CTS and on the relevance of carpal tunnel size updated in the epidemiology page.
18.3.12 - Following an interesting discussion in the forum here I have added a page covering the issues raised by the coincidence of breast cancer and CTS and a list of differential diagnoses has been added under diagnosis
7.3.12 - New data added to non-surgical prognosis
4.3.12 - Histology and Biochemistry pages revised and Ultrasound section expanded
1.3.12 - Surgical prognosis page fully revised
29.2.12 - Links page updated to reference newly released Cochrane Collaboration publications
28.2.12 - New references related to occupational risks for developing CTS added and referenced in the epidemiology page
24.2.12 - New page devoted to CTS in pregnancy added, minor additions to symptoms page
19.2.12 - Additional data added to the general information page on treatment by local steroid injection to include new publications on long term outcome and complications
30.1.12 - The ultrasound section - was going to become too long as a single page and has therefore been restructured as one introductory page and 5 separate sections, which will be populated over the next few weeks
24.1.12 - Steroid injection page updated to cover 'flare reactions' after injection
23.1.12 - Therapeutic ultrasound trial now recruiting
4.1.12 - Splinting page revised to include more references to the (poor) evidence
21.12.11 - Site performance page updated to show finding in first 252 patients with questionnaire scores of <= 20%
27.11.11 - Graph showing initial outcomes of local steroid injection added to non-surgical prognosis. A page for surgical pictures added.
12.11.11 - New page added discussing non-surgical prognosis
Revision date- As for most recent entry at top of the changelist
