title: Restless hand symptoms in carpal tunnel syndrome.
abstract: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a nerve entrapment disorder, involving the median nerve when it passes the carpal tunnel at the wrist. Using a case-control methodology, 312 electrophysiologically confirmed CTS patients with mean age of 51.3+/-9.4 (27-74) years (81.7% women) and 100 controls with mean age of 50.4+/-9.2 (21-88) years (75% women) were examined utilising a questionnaire similar to the clinical diagnostic criteria of restless legs syndrome (RLS). Forty-four (14.1%) of the CTS patients have symptoms compatible with restless hand syndrome compared with none (0%) in the control group (p < 0.0001). The severity of CTS was not significantly associated with the motor restlessness. Our observations suggest that entrapment syndromes such as CTS can be associated with a form of restlessness in the hands, analogous to RLS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore. gnrtek@sgh.com.sg
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arulanandam
authors.forename: Y L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Lo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002349:Carpal Tunnel Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010292:Paresthesia / Q000209:etiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies