Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Migraine Lateralization

Abstract

Background/Aims: Within the scope of this research, we aimed to elucidate the relationship between carpal tunnel syndrome and migraine to explore both the pain intensity and the localization of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in concomitant migraine. The primary outcome variable was elaborated as the pain lateralization, and the secondary outcome variable was the pain intensity. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational prospective study of 500 patients with a preliminary carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis in our institution. After patients with missing data were excluded from the study, 413 remained, 365 (88.4%) women and 48 (11.6%) men. After recording the demographic characteristics, the patient's migraine pain year of onset of pain, pain characteristics, localization, frequency, duration, severity, triggering factors, symptoms, and findings accompanying the pain were recorded. Results: The lateralization of migraine was on the right side (only on the right or mostly on the right) in 25.9% and on the left side (only on the left or mostly on the left) in 26.4% of the patients. Almost half of the patients (47.7%) experienced bilateral migraine headaches. Carpal tunnel syndrome was in the right hand in 13.3%, in the left hand in 11.6%, and bilateral in 75.1%. Of 197 patients with bilateral pain, 68 (34.5%) had mild, 116 (58.9%) had moderate, and 13 (6.6%) had severe CTS. The VAS level of migraine pain was higher only in patients with CTS in the left hand and in those with moderate CTS. Conclusion: It has been determined that those with carpal tunnel syndrome on the right side have migraines mostly on the right, those with carpal tunnel syndrome on the left have migraines on the left, and those with carpal tunnel syndrome in both directions have migraines predominantly in both directions.