Case Studies

20-October-2008

This young man had approached his GP in March 2007 with wrist pains and was given a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome, with pain killers. It got worse so he returned and asked for a consultant appointment because his hand was beginning to be difficult to manipulate on the guitar fretboard. The appointment was given a few months later and the consultant also gave a label of carpal tunnel and referred the young man for physiotherapy. Six months of physiotherapy produced little change and he reported that the symptoms had now reached his elbow and the hand was harder to use. He was referred to a consultant who this time was accompanied by a professor–again both seemed to agree on the label and he was told that surgery was out of the question because of his age–so they gave him a steroid injection into the wrist which removed symptoms for a few months. Symptoms returned and at this point he approached Andy Thomas for help. The diagnosis was of severe cervical joint immobility probably stemming from an early accident as a child and then 10 years of playing guitar standing with the weight of the instrument around the neck. Three sessions of neck joint mobilisation removed all symptoms in 2 weeks and he returned to normal guitar playing.