Carpal tunnel syndrome due to thrombosed persisting median artery. A case report

Abstract

Surgical intervention for carpal tunnel syndrome in a seventy year old woman revealed thrombosis of a double persisting median artery. The persisting median artery is a rare anomaly and its association with a thrombotic process to cause carpal tunnel syndrome is even rarer. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a widely-known phenomenon about which much has been written in the medical literature. A persisting median artery accompanying the nerve into the carpal tunnel is uncommon, occurring in only about 10% of such cases (Pecket, 1973) and thrombosis of such an artery as a cause for carpal tunnel syndrome is very rare (Burnham, 1963; DeAbreu & Godoy Moreira, 1958). We describe a case in which thrombosis is a double persisting median artery was discovered to be the cause of carpal tunnel syndrome at operation.