PREVALENCE OF CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME AMONG TECHNICIANS AND LABORATORY STAFF

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that causes pain, numbness, tingling in the hand and arm. When the major Median nerve passing underneath the transverse carpal ligament gets squeezed or compressed it causes the symptoms. This continuous compression ultimately leads to the functional impairment and local ischemia of the nerve.

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome and commonly reported symptoms in laboratory workers and its associated factors

Methods: It was a cross-sectional study in which 225 participants met the inclusion criteria by using “Boston Carpal tunnel Questionnaire. Data was analyzed through IBM SPSS version 21.0.

Results: Out of 225 participants, 57 were had severe symptoms with the prevalence of 25.3%. Females were more affected than males (58% > 42%) in severely affected group.  Technicians were more affected than the attendants (91.2% and 8.8% respectively).

Conclusion: Current study concluded that laboratory workers have more risk to develop CTS especially women with dominant hand.

Key Words: Carpal tunnel syndrome, laboratory workers, risk factors.