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Drasko Simovic, MD; David H. Weinberg, MD

Arch Neurol. 2000;57:754-755.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most frequently encountered mononeuropathy in clinical practice. Although now a well–recognized entity, it took almost 100 years from the initial observations until the pathophysiology of the disorder was finally accepted as a median nerve compression at the wrist.

EARLY DESCRIPTIONS

Sir James Paget (1854)¹ was the first to describe the clinical features of CTS. His first patient was a man who developed pain and impaired sensation in the hand from the trauma of a cord drawn tightly around his wrist. In a second case, a tardy median nerve palsy was a consequence of a distal radius fracture; this patient improved with wrist immobilization and thus was also the first description of treatment with a neutral wrist splint, a method still in use today:

A man was at Guy's Hospital, who, in consequence to a fracture at the lower end . . . [Full Text of this Article]

TINEL AND PHALEN SIGNS

From The Division of Neurology, St Elizabeth's Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Mass.