Carpal Tunnel Syndrome 1 in 1000 people

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: "This syndrome is a set of symptoms caused by compression (squashing) of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel. About 1 in 1000 people develop this syndrome each year. Most cases occur in people in their 40's and 50's, but it can occur at any age. It is also common during pregnancy. Women are affected 2-3 times more often than men."

National Statistics

In mid-2006 the resident population of the UK was 60,587,000, of which 50,763,000 lived in England. The average age was 39.0 years, an increase on 1971 when it was 34.1 years. In mid-2006 approximately one in five people in the UK were aged under 16 and one in six people were aged 65 or over.

The UK has a growing population. It grew by 349,000 people in the year to mid-2006 (0.6 per cent). The UK population has increased by 8 per cent since 1971, from 55,928,000. Growth has been faster in more recent years. Between mid-1991 and mid-2006 the population grew by an average annual rate of 0.4 per cent and the average growth per year since mid-2001 has been 0.5 per cent.

I start to calculate. This means, there are 50 000 to 60 000 new CTS patients in UK each year. Is that correct? One in 1 000 sounds like a very small number. I read the text again and get the point:

About 1 in 1000 people develop
this syndrome each year.

According to international epidemiological studies, the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome is 3% in men and 5% in women. We also know that up to 15% of the population suffer from CTS-like symptoms such as numbness, tingling, pain, weakness or clumsiness in the hand!

That means that there are:
50 to 60 000 000 x 3 to 5 % =
1 500 000 to 3 000 000
suffering in UK

Over 80,000 people suffer from these symptoms in Helsinki region alone. Every year, 190 women and 90 men / 100,000 inhabitants are diagnosed with CTS which is which is 3 ‰ (per mille) of the population. The numbers for London are 10 to 15 times the Helsinki figure!

Those figures compare with the story below:

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:
4 to 10 million Americans

How many mediracers and orthopedic clinics are needed to handle the CTS diagnostics and hand operations task in Great-Britain?

Take a look at what people are talking about CTS diagnostics, hand surgery and cure after hand operation.

There was this post in Patient UK Experience: "My husband was in touch with Malcolm Clark at Leicester General Hospital. He was sorted within a fortnight. Minor operation took about 30 minutes. We do not live any where near Leicester but the travel was worth it."