Phalen's Maneuver and Tinel's Sign in CS Exam

[rasheed]

Physical examination to confirm the presence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is something that you may have to do the CS exam.

However, do not do theses clinical maneuvers in each and every case. Not even when you do the full neurological exam. They are needed only if the patient has specific carpal tunnel symptomology.

Better than descriptive words is these two simple YouTube videos

Tapping on the distal radial end may elicit electic feelings in the hand as shown here

[JSA-mant]

Thank you Rasheed,

I've been looking for this for long time

[tsttm]

any thoughts whether we'd be expected to perform this maneuver for a whole minute during a CS encounter? Or if it's negative after a short period we can assume it's negative?

[99ner]

Just do the tinnel test as its enough, and the phalen is time consuming

[tsttm]

Originally Posted by lawrencedoc

both should be done for any wrist pain or arm trauma case with wrist symptoms right?

i don't think trauma..these are to confirm any suspicions of carpal tunnel syndrome or median nerve issues- from my understanding.

The question I posed wasn't so much whether both should be done..rather would you spend a whole minute testing phalen's or a shorter period during the exam; and the opinions seem to be to skip it & just do tinnel's.

I just did the exam (no results yet) and you have to pick & choose what to perform based on the time you have (i would have included phalen's but just for a few seconds)..i realize now they're not going to waste your time..if it's positive they'll tell you right away. Time is very limited...