If numbness in your hands persists, you may have a rare syndrome.

After years of numbness in her hands, the woman discovered the cause of her condition was thoracic outlet syndrome. This is a rare condition that often causes complications in adulthood.

Doctor Dung (right) and his surgical team perform surgery on the patient.

Three years ago, Ms. NTH (42 years old) started to feel numbness and weakness in her right hand. She went to many hospitals and was diagnosed with cervical spondylosis, but taking medicine for many days did not help. Recently, the symptoms got worse, her right hand not only felt numb and weak, but also had muscle atrophy, reducing her mobility.

She went to a private clinic for an ultrasound, and the doctor discovered that her right brachial plexus was being compressed by the scalene muscle. This is a typical sign of thoracic outlet syndrome. She was transferred to Tam Anh General Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for treatment.

Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung, Head of the Department of Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said that Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) is a rare anatomical abnormality that is present from birth. When the patient is young, the muscles are still soft and the nerve compression is not clear, so the disease does not show symptoms.

As we age, the muscles gradually stiffen and degenerate, leading to nerve compression. Symptoms are especially evident in patients who do manual labor or work that requires a lot of shoulder muscle movement.

The thoracic outlet includes the space from the supraclavicular fossa to the axillary fossa. This space is formed by the uppermost ribs, just below the collarbone. TOS occurs when nerves or blood vessels are compressed by ribs, collarbone, or muscle bundles at the top of the outlet.

The disease manifests itself with symptoms of pain or weakness in the shoulder and arm, tingling or discomfort in the fingers, atrophy-contraction and weakness of the thumb pads, muscles of the palm... so it is easily confused with neurological and musculoskeletal diseases. If left untreated, thoracic outlet syndrome can lead to serious complications such as axillary-subclavian vein thrombosis; chronic arm swelling and pain, gangrene or ischemic ulcers on the fingers due to reduced blood flow, permanent nerve damage, pulmonary embolism.

TOS is divided into three types. Patients with H. have neurogenic TOS (nTOS), the most common type (accounting for 95%), characterized by compression of the brachial plexus, a network of nerves originating from the spinal cord that controls muscle movement and sensation in the shoulder, arm, and hand. The other two types are venous TOS (vTOS, accounting for 3-5%) and arterial TOS (aTOS, accounting for 1-2%).

The team made a 5cm incision in the skin just above the clavicle, dissected the surrounding tissue and muscles, and exposed the subclavian vascular bundle with its arterial, venous, and brachial plexus structures. Next, the surgeon cut the anterior scalene muscle bundle to widen the thoracic outlet. The surgery ended after two hours.

One day after the surgery, Ms. H.'s hand numbness was gone and she was able to resume normal activities. She was instructed in physical therapy to restore her hand's motor function. She was discharged from the hospital after 3 days and continued to have regular check-ups and physical therapy.

Doctor Dung informed that, in addition to the abnormal anatomical cause, thoracic outlet syndrome is also the result of maintaining bad posture for a period of time, such as drooping shoulders or bending the head forward causing compression in the thoracic outlet area; trauma from a traffic accident; performing the same movement continuously, repeatedly for a long time; movements that put pressure on the joints such as wearing a heavy backpack, carrying heavy objects, obesity...

People at high risk of the disease are athletes , musicians, office workers, mechanics, hairdressers, teachers, assembly line workers, and people who do heavy lifting.

Thoracic outlet syndrome usually begins to show symptoms between the ages of 20 and 50, and is more common in women. To reduce the risk of developing the disease, everyone should maintain good posture (keep your shoulders straight, head straight, and avoid bending your head forward for too long), take regular breaks at work to move and stretch, maintain a reasonable weight, avoid carrying heavy objects on your shoulders, and do relaxation exercises such as deep breathing, meditation, and stretching.

THIEN LAM

Source: https://nhandan.vn/neu-te-tay-keo-dai-co-the-ban-dang-mac-hoi-chung-it-gap-post905574.html