Anatomic study of the branching of the median nerve through topographic points <b>[Abstract in English]</b>

Abstract

Introduction: Actually, many approaches have been used in the surgery of the carpal tunnel, varying in size and localization in the palm of the hand. Topographic points in the palm of hand have been specifically chosen, with the purpose of establishing fixed places of simple identification, in order to obtain a place of easy access to the retinaculum (RF), trying not to compromise any structure in the region of the carpal tunnel.
Material and methodology: The authors of this work have taken the technique used by Serra et al. (1997)(1) as a basis, and have analyzed the anatomic study of this region, in order to make the surgery of the carpal tunnel much more accurate. To make it, they have dissected 20 hands, 10 right and 10 left and operated on 10 pacients with Tunnel Carpal Syndrome. Never mind the morphometric differences of the different individuals.
Results: In all studied pieces , It had been identificated an accurate point, named X, was achieved, so that from this point on not only the distal edge of the RF has been localized, but also the emergency of the branching of the median nerve.
Conclusion: It had been observed in all the studied cases the correspondence between the X point and the emergency median nerve in the edge of RF.
KEY WORDS: CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME/surgery; WRIST/anatomy & histology; WRIST/surgery.