numbness post surgery
I had bilateral laproscopic carpel tunnel release in Feb, During the surgery I experienced a sever bleed in my left hand. My right had healed quickly and I have had no symptoms since the surgery. My left hand healed very slowly and was extreemly bruised for a month post surgery. Since the surgery I have had constant numbness in the three middle fingers of my left hand. I also experience pain and swelling and my middle finger gets strangly cold. My fingers often have a shiney appearance. My surgeon believes I have Sympathetic reflux dystrophy as a complication to the surgery. He however has no explanation to the continued numbness. I had an ultrasound which showed no abnormalities or possible explainations. My surgeon says he has never seen this before 6 months post surgery and has said he will seek another opinion. He believes my only options are to wait another 6 months in case I have slow healing nerves, or exploratory surgery.
Has anyone else experienced this? I would appreciate any ideas or advice.
We need some more investigation results - preferably before and after surgery nerve conduction studies.... and was the ultrasound done by someone knowledgeable about peripheral nerve imaging and carpal tunnel syndrome in particular - did they make any comment on the appearance of the nerve and transverse carpal ligament to indicate what they were looking at when doing it. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (now more often called complex regional pain syndrome) is certainly a possibility and would not show up on neurophysiology or ultrasound but there are other possibilities that should be explored. JB