Sleep-related disorders in carpal tunnel syndrome

Abstract

Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) often wake up at night due to pain and numbness of affected fingers and hand. We studied the sleep disorder caused by CTS. 34 consecutive patients referred for operative treatment of CTS answered to a sleep questionnaire and the results were compared to a stratified random sample of 1600 Finns aged 36-50 year, whose response rate to the mailed questionnaires was 75.2% (n = 1186). Six CTS patients underwent a polygraphic sleep study before and after operative treatment of CTS. CTS patients reported suffering from poor sleep quality, fragmentary sleep and daytime sleepiness more often than controls. Before operative treatment of CTS there were more nocturnal body movements (p < 0.01) and awakenings lasted longer (p < 0.05) than after operation. During preoperative sleep studies no drop in median nerve conduction was detected during awakenings. Patients with CTS suffer from fragmentary sleep. Although patients reported waking up for the pain or numbness of hands no impairment in median and ulnar nerve conduction could be observed during these awakenings. Operative treatment of hand entrapment significantly reduced the number of nocturnal movements.