PT or surgery

Mitch Stewart
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I received my results from the neurologist about 8 weeks ago. The topline feedback is:Abnormal nerve conduction of the bilateral upper extremities with normal electromyography of the left upper extremity:

1) There is electrophysiologic evidence of a left median sensory mononeuropathy at the wrist that is suggestive of a mild left carpal tunnel syndrome.
2) There is electrophysiologic evidence of a significant slowing of the left ulnar nerve across the elbow without significant sensory conduction loss or electromyographic changes. Such findings are suggestive of an early/mild demyelinating, left, ulnar mononeuropathy across the elbow (cubital tunnel syndrome).
3) There is no clear electrophysiologic evidence of large fiber polyneuropathy, myopathy, cervical plexopathy, or cervical radiculopathy noted in the left upper extremity at this time.

I have been going to the PT for 6 weeks and it has had no effect on my numbness and general hand weakness. I don't want to have surgery, but clearly this isn't getting any better. I am happy to share my actual test results if helpful. What I'm hoping to find out is if the results warrant surgery or should i just suck it up? (the biggest outlier on my test results was measuring AMP (uV) of my left fifth digit and it came back at 2.2 and my right was at 28.6)

Thanks for any advice!

jeremydpbland
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That one quoted measurement doesn't really tally with what was said in the report. If you want me to have a look at the full results I'm happy to do that - just email them to me. It's not unusual for physio to have no effect on CTS symptoms but the first thing is check whether your symptoms really do sound like CTS. If you run through the diagnostic questionnaire on here that will give us a very good idea of whether that is likely to be the right diagnosis before we start to consider the test results. As they described it as a 'mild' CTS there is probably not any immediate need to rush in to surgery so there is time to have a think about the problem. JB

Mitch Stewart
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I can't seem to find a way to email you my test results. Any chance you can give me an address?

Thanks

jeremydpbland
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My email address is in the contacts page of the site - start from the 'About carpal-tunnel.net' link at the top of the page and you should find it. JB

jeremydpbland
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Thanks for the results. I'll reply by email. JB

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