Carpal tunnel and CIDP

Jim I asked my Neuro if I had Carpel tunnel and she said she didn’t think so because all of the nerve in my hands are affected. If your baby finger is not affected then there is a chance that it is carpel tunnel. The baby finger is not connected to the median nerves
Info I found complicated to read but it might makes sense to you
Sue

[B]Hand[/B]

In the hand, the median nerve supplies motor innervation to the 1st and 2nd lumbricals and the muscles of the thenar eminence of the hand by a recurrent thenar branch. The rest of the intrinsic muscles of the hand are supplied by the ulnar nerve.

The median nerve innervates the skin of the palmar side of the thumb, the index and middle finger, half the ring finger, and the nail bed of these fingers. The lateral part of the palm is supplied by the palmar cutaneous branch of the median nerve which leaves the nerve proximal to the wrist creases. This palmar cutaneous branch travels in a separate fascial groove adjacent to the flexor carpi radialis.

During my pregnancy, I was told repeatedly that it was good ole carpel tunnel. It was only afterwards that the neuro ran a nerve conduction velocity test (NCV) and found speeds that reported demylenization not carpel tunnel. If you don’t mind being electricuted:D , this test can give a pretty clear result.

Jim there are three nerves supplying the hands, the radial, the median and the ulnar. Carpal tunnel is compression of the median nerve in the fibrous tunnel at the wrist, it is nearly always one side only, it causes numbness of the thumb and next two fingers then weakness of the muscles at the base of the thumb. The ulnar nerve travels round the ‘funny bone’ and supplies the fourth and fifth fingers. The radial nerve supplies the small muscles in the hand. Involvement of all three nerves is part of CIDP which indicates your disease is progressing. I have no feeling at all in either hand or wrist in a glove distribution, the muscles at the base of the thumb, base of little finger and those in between small muscles are all wasted so my hands don’t work well. DocDavid

Hi,

I have a friend who has been operated in one hand for carpal tunnel syndrome. She is reluctant to have the other hand operated since the first operation went wrong. However, now she has begun treatment with vitamin B6.

Search the net for carpal tunnel and B6 and see all the results. Here is one of them: [url]http://alternative-medicine-and-health.com/conditions/carpal.htm[/url]

Fortunately vitamin B6 supplementation, the natural treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, is simple, inexpensive, and usually very effective. Researchers have discovered that many people with carpal tunnel also suffer from a B6 vitamin deficiency (which explains why many sufferers are pregnant women, menopausal women, or women on birth control pills, because these conditions deplete B6.) Vitamin B6 works to strengthen the sheath that surrounds the tendon and thus helps to relieve the pain. Two other B vitamins work in conjunction with B6, to make the treatment more effective: B2 and B12. In addition, folic acid is beneficial.

This is getting weird to me… seeing many posts with vitamin b’s mentioned as a cause/affecting nerves. My last neuro appt. he said I had carpal tunnel in both wrists and told me I was on the low side of vit. b. I was experiencing lots of electrical zaps and tingles in my feet.

In the past 3 to 4 weeks I have been taking some great vitamins that have lots of vitamin b’s (several kind) and have stopped taking amitryptiline (cause the dr. was scaring me with my weight and diabetes). My tingling and zapping have just about stopped and my right arm/thumb are not as numb as they were. I can only attribute this to the vitamin/supplements I am taking!

I have been a secretary (typing) all my life and this carpal tunnel stuff does not surprise me. I don’t have pain, but am extremely weak in my hands. I have one of those automatic jar openers, otherwise I would be stuck.

I don’t think I would ever consider surgery.