Spontaneous compression of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel

Numbness, tingling and pain in the hands, sometimes associated with weakness and wasting of the small hand-muscles, is a common condition. Many cases of this symptom complex have been diagnosed, depending on the fashion at the time, as cervical rib, scalenus anticus, thoracic inlet or costo-clavicular syndromes. At the present time the popular diagnosis for similar cases is cervical disc disease. A common cause of this symptom complex is, however, compression of the median nerve under the flexor retinaculum in the carpal tunnel