Need Info onPost Carpal Tunnel Surgery Problems | Arthritis Information

On July 28th I had carpal tunnel release. Prior to surgery my symptoms were numbness in my thumb. weakness in the hand, and an EMG indicating moderate carpal tunnel. 3 weeks after surgery I began to develop episodic intense pain in the hand that sometime radiates up the arm and even pain between the shoulders. I experience 3- 6 of these per day and prior to my surgeon putting me on 300mg/gabapentin an episode could last upwards of an hour. Since beginning gabapentin the episodes are much shorter but no less intense in terms of pain. The surgeon says, on the basis of an ultra sound, that scar tissue is forming and causing the pain. When the scar tissues is fully formed he says it will shrink and the pain will be gone. A second opinion with another hand specalist hypothesized that the pain is due to the arthritis I have in that wrist. which prior to the surgery caused

no pain. Vastly different opinions. Does anyone have any experience with this type of issue following carpal tunnel surgery? Emme

Hi Emme. I'm sorry I can't help you with the pain issue. I had carpel tunnel surgery on my right wrist and I found out later through an mri that the surgery failed. It was arthritis in my wrists that was bothering me but the neurologist convinced me that carpel tunnel surgery was what I needed so I went ahead and then it didn't even work. I've since developed carpel tunnel in my left wrist and it's much worse than my right ever was but I'm hesitant to have surgery. I hope you find some answers soon. Good luck.

Gwen

As a general rule, pain radiates away from the centre of the body. This means that your wrist cannot be causing your shoulder pain.

Another possibility is that all of your pain (including the original carpal tunnel like symptoms) were caused by the neck.

The fact that gabapentin helps suggests it is neurological pain. If no one has previously done a thorough assessment of your cervical spine, this is where i would start.

This could be something like a C6 nerve root irritation.

Carpal tunnel surgery should only cause complications at the level of the scar and into the hand.

The only other complication I can think of is something called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. This is an uncommon complication that results in hypersensitivity to the hand and arm and can be very painful. It is treated by a physio with a densensitisation program