Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS)is defined as anentrapment neuropathy of the median nerve, and its high social and economiccosts lead to a surge of studies,especially during the past ten years. This article first reviews normalanatomy of carpal tunnel, symptoms, causal factors and compression mechanismof CTS, and the diagnosis and treatment available for CTS patients. Then itgives a detailed review of the biomechanical studies related to carpaltunnel syndrome from the following aspects: (1) Factors affecting the carpaltunnel pressure, such as different wrist postures, loads on finger tips ortendons or palms, and the frequency of wrist movement in repetitive handactivities; (2) Carpal stability, such as the influence of incising thetransverse carpal ligament or some transverse intercarpal ligament on carpalstiffness, and the loss of stability caused by the open carpal tunnelrelease as viewed in kinetics; (3) Movements and interactions between thedigital flexor tendons, median nerve and transverse carpal ligament; (4)Lengthening of transverse carpal ligament by sustained tensile loads orusing the transposition flap technique. The objective of this paper is toprovide a basic understanding of CTS and to introduce the biomechanicalstudies that have been carrived out related to the CTS. It is suggested that one ofpromising aspects in biomechanical studies of CTS may lie in the use offinite element (FE) methods to set up three-dimensional models of the wristand the hand and to analyze the carpal tunnel by biomechanics.
DownLoad: