Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology, Princess Margaret Hospital, Lai King Hill Road, Kwai Chung, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
KB Tam (譚國斌) FRCSEd, FHKCOS, FHKAM(Ortho)
Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Princess Margaret Hospital, Lai King Hill Road, Kwai Chung, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
KY Chan (陳國燕) FRCPCH, FHKAM
EKC Yau (丘健昌) MRCP(UK) FHKAM(Paed)
Occupational Therapy Department, Princess Margaret Hospital, Lai King Hill Road, Kwai Chung, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
S Fong (方少麗) PDOT, M.Phil
Correspondence to: Dr KB Tam
Received May 26, 2010
Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is rare in children. Lysosomal storage diseases including mucopolysaccharidosis and mucolipidosis, account for most of the underlying causes of childhood onset CTS. Rare causes such as trauma, aberrant ligaments, and muscle slings in the carpal tunnel and sports-related CTS have also been reported in children. Classical CTS occurs due to compression of the median nerve in the wrist when it runs through the carpal tunnel and usually presents with early sensory and late motor symptoms related to the territory of median nerve. Children with CTS however often have very few complaints despite long standing difficulty in manual tasks. Most of them are diagnosed late in the course of nerve compression with severe thenar weakness and atrophy. We describe the clinical features, hand function assessment, MRI findings and surgical outcome in a 12 years old girl with thenar muscles atrophy due to bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome with entrapment of the recurrent motor branches of median nerves.