Familial Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in a Japanese Family

• Published in: Orthopedics & Traumatology Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 326 - 331
• Main Authors: Naniwa, Shingo, Kamihira, Mochiru, Ohtsuki, Kengi, Morio, Yasuo, Hayashi, Kanichi, Murata, Masaaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: West-Japanese Society of Orthopedics & Traumatology 1989
• ISSN: 0037-1033; 1349-4333
• DOI: 10.5035/nishiseisai.38.326

We treated surgically 54 wrists in 48 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) between April, 1976 and October, 1988: idiopathic CTS, 34 wrists in 29 patients; traumatic CTS 10 wrists; specific inflammatory CTS, 5 wrists; familial CTS, 4 wrists in 3 patients; and other 1 wrist. This reported family consists of 7 members of one generation. Within 7 siblings, 5 patients (two brothers and three sisters) were found to have the carpal tunnel syndrome and 4 wrists in 3 patients were operatively treated at our hospital. Operative and pathological findings were considerable thickening and degeneration of the transverse carpal ligaments in 4 wrists in 3 patients of familial CTS. We think that this thickness of transverse carpal ligament was the most common cause of the familial CTS, but on the other hand, thickness of flexor synovialis was the most common cause of idiopathic CTS.