Problems after endoscopic CTR
Really wish I found the site sooner. After reading through many of the posts, I’m definitely sorry that I proceeded with carpal tunnel surgery without first having a better understanding what should have been done to confirm the diagnosis as well as what to expect after surgery. I do have a job that requires repetitive movement throughout the day. I was suffering from pain and numbness in the fingers of both hands as well quite a bit of pain in my thumb joint on both hands as well. I went to see a hand specialist. Work had become impossible with the level of pain I was experiencing so I knew I had to do something about it. I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome as well as damage to my tendons in both of my hands. My doctor only x-rayed the left hand and there were no other tests done other than some test where the doctor manipulated my hands in various directions and pressure was put at the base of my wrist. There weren’t any nerve conduction studies or anything like that. The doctor proceeded to do a carpal tunnel release and De Quervains release on the left hand which seems to have been successful. Based on how well I was progressing well with the left hand the doctor then advised proceeding with surgery on the right hand. I was told that we didn’t need to do any further testing because he already knew that the right hand was having the same issue as the left hand and since surgery worked on the left hand it would work on the right hand (also my dominant hand) as well. However I noticed night after the surgery on the right hand very different sensations as the anesthesia wore off than the left. At that time I was experiencing extreme pain which felt like electrical shocks. Fast forward I am at nearly 2 weeks after surgery on the right hand and still having these terrible electrical shock pains. I have no sensation of touch in the fingertips of my thumb, ring finger and middle finger other than the electrical shock pain that passes through them on the inside. Feels like someone shocking the bones of these fingers at times? For days I couldn’t move those same three fingers. I can move them a bit more now but the pain has gotten worse and the lack of sensation in the tips along with the fact that any attempt to manipulate them is met with a hard shock has rendered them unusable. Also that entire hand is very cold. Pretty scared about what’s happening. Never had a nerve conduction study before surgery to use as a comparison but it seems like I should try to get one in light of what’s happening so I’m going to do that. My doctor has been telling me that one of my nerves could have gotten “dinged” during surgery because they did the right hand in the endoscopically (the left hand was done via an open ctr) and it would pass but now the pain is so bad the only way I can get through the day as with the narcotics which they dispense in abundance at that office so I need to get to a solution. Also is it a numerologist that I should be seeing at this point or another hand specialist?
Many thanks for the response. Also my apologies for the typos in my original post as well. Unfortunately, we didn't discuss what kind of carpal tunnel release was going to done before either surgery. In hindsight, I really wish that we had done so. I was told after the left hand surgery that endoscopic was "better" in regard to a fast recovery but that upon attempting to do the surgery endoscopically, the doctor realized that it was not possible and the made a second incision to do an open CTR. I never actually saw or spoke to the surgeon before or after the right hand surgery. I contacted his office about the electric shock pain a few days later and was told that this one was successfully done endoscopically but my nerve must haven gotten "dinged". I've been trying to find out since reading your response, if he may have been new to this kind of surgery (via online research) but not getting very far. I can see that he's been doing surgery in general for about 20 years. I'll see if I can possibly find out more on that from the practice directly. He's just recently been terminated from the practice and there is a new doctor there who says that he cannot help me with the issue because he did not do the surgery and does not have access to the doctor's surgery notes. The doctor who did the surgery is currently barred from contacting his patients due to pending litigation (I don't know the nature of it) so he's not able to see me or examine my hand. I did see my primary care doctor yesterday and got a referral to another orthopedic doctor. I'll be following your advice and asking for a set of nerve conduction studies and if possible those ultrasounds as well. I'm researching also if there is anyone here qualified do ultrasounds of my right median nerve. Definitely alarmed about all of this but hoping for a good outcome. ib
Not having access to notes from the same practice but a different surgeon sounds distinctly poor in terms of continuity of care - is this the USA? Recovery is slightly faster after endoscopic surgery - if you pool all of the published studies you arrive at an overall estimate that return to work is an average of about 2 days earlier after endoscopic surgery, but other factors are probably much more important than the type of surgery. In much of the US system surgeons earn more for doing the endoscopic procedure so I am a bit cynical about it I'm afraid. The legal situation with the surgeon seems a little worrying too. JB
I am in the USA and learning that the motivation for doing the surgery endoscopically might have been money is interesting indeed. I decided to look at the explanation of benefits from my insurance provider after reading your post and see that my left hand was billed by the surgeon as an endoscopic surgery (the right hand has yet to be billed). I was told that after making an incision to do the surgery on the left hand it was determined that an endoscopic procedure would not work so they went with open and I have the second long vertical incision to back that up. Perhaps a surgeon can bill for endoscopic surgery if it was attempted? I don't know, but i'm thinking i've made just a monumentally huge mistake with not more thoroughly researching this doctor and practice. It's a holiday here today so I'll be hopefully be able to arrange those nerve conduction studies tomorrow. Had a very rough evening with the electric shocks last night. My general practitioner gave me Garapentin to help with the pain which I've been taking since Friday evening. It seemed to possibly help a little the second night but last night not at all. Thank you again for your time and insight as well. ib
I don't want to be too hard on my American colleagues. There are lots of great doctors in the States but I can't help feeling that the very mercenary set-up of a lot of US healthcare exerts subliminal influences on decision making which perhaps explain some of the differences in practice between the US and the UK. I'm not an expert on US billing but I think it would be logical for the left hand op to be billed as endoscopic if that is the procedure that was attempted as the premium price is supposed to cover the additional instrumentation costs involved in the endoscopic procedure and if they set out to do an endoscopic decompression they would have set up the kit for it. Conversion from endoscopic to open is a well known sequence of events and expected in a modest proportion of attempted endoscopic operations. JB
I definitely agree that our very flawed healthcare system is to blame. Thank you also for the info regarding why the surgery was billed as endoscopic. Good to know that whatever else is happening, at least that is above board. I'll also follow up and post and results from nerve studies and well. ib
Still waiting on an appointment with the neurologist but there has been a new development with my hand that is just odd. in addition to the numbness and electric shock pain, this sensation that I can only describe as a feeling of "pulling" is happening along with the shocks and tingles. Also after the "pulling" began, my fingers changed position on their own. After surgery my hand was in what I would describe as a more closed hand position with the four fingers bent close to the palm and the thumb on the outside. After about a week, this shifted to them being stuck in more of a cupped or C curve? Last night I had some very hard sharp pains and felt like a bulging vertical something (vein / nerve ???) from my wrist toward the crease at the arm joint. It woke me from sleep a couple times and when awoke the new "pulling" pain was there along with my fingers progressively reverting back to "closed hand". I apologize for writing without having new data to add (like the nerve studies) but I'm wondering if what's happening might jump out as being indicative of anything in particular.
Thank you for your time
i.b.
All kinds of odd sensations can go along with nerve irritation/trauma. They aren't usually diagnostically very helpful I'm afraid. The posture of the hand can sometimes be a clue to either muscle weakness or tendon injury but this is better seen than described - however that description of the hand position doesn't sound like anything that I wouldn't necessarily expect after surgery for a while. It should be possible to move the fingers though - most surgeons encourage the patient to actively commence range of movement exercises for the fingers soon after surgery to stop all the tendons getting stuck together in the area of surgery. JB
I definitely appreciate your time and advice on this issue. I was able to see a neurologist yesterday for an initial assessment. He'll be doing an EMG tomorrow which I understand is some kind of nerve test. He's also in touch with a hand surgeon at another practice who he's worked with in the past (he also says he's the best in this field in our city) and will be sharing the results and consulting with him. He told me that based on the initial examination that he believes another surgery is likely needed to correct the issue. I'm not sure what to expect but I'll post the results of the EMG once I have them. I also believe that this hand surgeon has at his disposal various imaging resources. I'm not sure if an ultrasound is among those but I'll surely ask for one. Also I've discovered that 2 family members haver had very positive experiences with the new hand surgeon and that practice in general so I'm very hopeful to get my hand usable again. i.b.
That's being approached in the best possible way now that you have arrived at this point in proceedings. It would have been preferable to have some pre-operative nerve conduction studies (that's the 'EMG') for comparison but as we don't have a time machine we have to work with what we've got. I'm always happy to look at EMG results but one should remember that the person recording them is generally in the best position to provide an interpretation - though standards undoubtedly do vary. In the USA the best guide to good quality EMG is a lab directed by a member of the AANEM, preferably accredited through their quality control scheme. You can look these up on the AANEM website. JB
Many thanks for the info on AANEM. I looked in their member directory prior to going in for the EMG today and found that my Neurologist is a member of AANEM and also ABEM certified which looked to be a very good thing so I felt confident going into the test today. This was extremely helpful given recent experiences. After conducting the test today the Neurologist told me that I have pretty severe damage to my right median nerve and also damage to my right ulnar nerve. The conclusion section of the report reads:
1. Severe right median neuropathy at the wrist
2. Right ulnar neuropathy at the elbow/retro-epicondylar space primarily demyelinating
3. Significant denervation isolated to the right first dorsal interossei, concern for distal Ulnar neuropathy at the palm (Shea and McClain V)
There are 5 tables with latin words and all sorts of numbers which I'm sure make sense to those in your profession. I'm happy to send those your way or post those here if you would like. I may need some guidance as to which numbers are helpful here. He also said that based on the results of the test, he is contacting the hand specialist/surgeon today to share the results as he may want to see me sooner based on those. i.b.
If you don't mind me having a look at the results the easiest thing to do is scan and email them to me. The full set of numbers/tables are of interest, and some people include their recorded waveforms in reports which is even better. JB
I'm happy to send those your way via email. I would definitely like for you to have a look at those at your convenience and thank you as well. To what email address would I send those? i.b.
Thanks for those. They show almost no function in the right median nerve - if this was CTS it would be grade 6 on the scale described here on the website, however as these are post-operative results there are other possibilities and the neurologist is right to refer you on urgently to a surgeon for review. I wouldn't worry too much about the ulnar nerve by comparison. Good quality ultrasound imaging would help to establish what has happened and it's a real pity we do not have pre-operative NCS for comparison. Can I ask - have you also lost quite a lot of the sense of touch in the thumb, index and middle fingers - and is there any evidence of wasting of the muscles at the base of the thumb? If so, were either of these things present before the surgery? JB
You are welcome. Many thanks to you for looking those over. I've definitely lost a great deal of sense of touch since surgery. I have almost no sense of touch in my index, thumb, and middle fingers (especially palm side). There is significant numbness on one side of my ring finger as well. Nothing like that was going on before the surgery. I was in a lot of pain and unable to do my job (which consists primarily of typing) for more than 10 minutes at a time before having to pause for an hour or two due to the pain. I was experiencing some numbness and tingling also prior to surgery. However I definitely had feeling in places where there is now nearly none to none. In regard to wasting muscles, that would be tricky to pick up as my hand is still somewhat puffy and swollen at the base of my thumb, part of my upper palm, as well as in those fingers affected with numbness since surgery as well. Before surgery on the left hand there was definitely wasting of muscles at the base of my thumb. On the right hand that was not much of an issue though I do believe that there was some. I recall being shown on my hands that there was a good amount of muscle atrophy on the left hand below the thumb but not much in the right hand. i.b.
Those NCS results suggest that a good deal of the muscle at the base of the thumb has been denervated so I would expect it to be weak (though it is a slightly tricky muscle to detect weakness in) and to start to show atrophy from a few weeks after the event. JB
The weakness is definitely there and definitely increasing. In the weeks following surgery I've had several doctors do a sort of test where i'm asked to push my thumb against their finger or hand (away from my palm). Now that you mention it, that has become increasingly difficult to do. The Neurologist asked me to do it yesterday and I was not able to apply any pressure that I could detect. He asked several times to start and I was already going full throttle. One and a half weeks post op, I was able to apply a little pressure at least. i.b.
That's the one. Everyone is testing the strength of the abductor pollicis brevis muscle, usually abbreviated to APB, which is the most reliably median innervated muscle in the hand. It's a pretty reliable sign of severe median nerve impairment. JB
Wanted to give an update as to what has transpired since my last post. After my exam with the new hand surgeon, he decided that since my hand was still very swollen (and also lacking the ability to even be manipulated very much at all) that I was to head into physical or occupational therapy for a while. His feeling was that either one of two things had occurred. Either my median was sliced into during the endoscopic CTR or that the CTR itself was incomplete. If the latter, he felt that possibly pieces of the ligament were sticking into the median nerve and causing trouble. After about 5 weeks of therapy, I can report that the swelling is down quite a bit and much work has been done to loosen the tendons which were very stiff from non movement. However, I have not regained any of the lost sensation and still exhibit the same signs of nerve damage as before with the exception of less pain (fewer electric shocks). He did a sensory test today (with my eyes closed he poked my fingers with some sharpish little pins) after which he informed me that things were not looking and has decided to proceed with what he says will be "exploratory surgery." It is now his opinion that the median nerve was likely cut into during the CTR and that there is scar tissue in that cut at this time. He says that he'll know for sure once he opens up my hand. His next step will then be to remove the scar tissue and insert a brace which he says will close the gap in the nerve from the cut. At that point the hope is that the nerve will form new connections. He did say however that the prognosis of that occurring is poor. I definitely want him to give it a try as the idea of having lost almost all of the sensation in my 3.5 fingers and part of my palm is not something I'm ready to accept as the norm. I'm to be scheduled for surgery over the next 1-2 weeks. Also it should be noted that he did also echo what I've seen elsewhere and on this site, that this kind of injury during CTR is rare. i.b.
Thanks - the story so far is certainly consistent with a nerve injury sustained during surgery and the only way to finally find out for certain and perhaps do something about it is indeed going to be exploratory surgery. I would love to know what is found and how they tackle the problem. JB
Hello
Surgery scheduled for the 27th (had to be pushed back due to my insurance company wanting more information about the procedure). Did want to ask a question about loss of function in my thumb. Not sure if it was always this bad but as of now I definitely don’t have an opposable thumb, in fact cannot even force my thumb to oppose my other fingers with my other hand. Also the thumb just sort of sticks out in a sort of unnatural position if that makes sense. I do want to ask if, in your opinion, should this surgery be unsuccessful as my doctor has said is likely, is that something that I can learn to do overtime somehow with therapy or is that just a disability that I would just have to learn to live with? Don’t mean to be negative but wanting an idea of what to possibly expect. I’m still a bit fuzzy in regard to how much function one would lose permanently with median nerve damage that cannot be corrected. i.b.
It's often possible to recover thumb function by using some form of tendon transfer even if all median nerve function is lost so there are surgical solutions. Some surgeons have taken to carrying out a procedure called opponensplasty in patients with very severely atrophic thumb muscles at the same time as the initial carpal tunnel decompression. I think that is a bit premature myself as some patients will recover even a very wasted thumb and others will not be bothered by the loss of function anyway. JB
The first thing we need there is a set of nerve conduction studies, and ideally some good quality ultrasound imaging of the right median nerve, though the latter may be harder to organise. It is certainly possible to cause quite significant nerve injury during endoscopic carpal tunnel decompression - had they done a lot of endoscopic operations preivously or is this surgeon fairly new to the technique? JB