Sleep disturbances in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome

Abstract EN

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most encountered peripheral entrapment neuropathy, which occurs, associated with compression of the median nerve in the wrist.

The most frequented complaint of CTS patients is waking from sleep because of pain and numbness in the hand.

Night waking with pain and numbness has long been reported as a common symptom associated with CTS and it has been described that about 80% of CTS patients have night-time waking due to numbness of the hands.

It is thought that wrist malposition during sleep acutely exacerbates CTS symptoms by increasing the pressure within the carpal canal.

Aim: This study aimed at investigating to what extent does CTS unfavorably affects sleep quality.

Patients and Methods: This study is a prospective clinical study of patients attending the outpatient Rheumatology clinic at Suez Canal University Hospital, Ismailia, EGYPT, with symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).

Once involved in the study, patients were asked to answer a group of questionnaires, which included basic demographic data.

Visual Analog Scale, Insomnia Severity Index questionnaire, Levine-Katz Carpal Tunnel (Boston) Questionnaire and Electrophysiological evaluation.

Results:Fifty-one patients were joined into this study.

There were 42 (82.4%) females and 9 (17.6%) males, with a median age of 38.47 ± 8.739 years.

Regarding the number of affected hands, 25.5% of patients had symptoms in one hand, 74.5% in both hands.

Patients reported CTS symptoms for a median duration of 26 ± 19.31 months (range: 1–60 months).Conclusion: Whether the sleep disturbance is related to CTS or not, this study demonstrates that patients with CTS have noteworthy difficulties with a varied diversity of sleep disturbances.