Nerve Entrapment and Gene Therapy

Peripheral entrapment neuropathy is a common cause of upper-extremity pain, paresthesias, and weakness. Although any of the major nerves can be affected, compression of the median nerve at the carpal tunnel is the commonest site of clinically significant nerve compression. Etiologically, carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) has numerous causes, but the idiopathic group greatly outnumbers the rest. Moreover, the pathophysiology of CTS patients claiming work-related repetitive hand motion as a basis for their disorder has been the subject of intensive study because of its economic ramifications for industry. CTS can serve as a model for reviewing the pathophysiology and biochemical changes of the nerve and its exterior milieu at the cellular level, as well as the possibilities of modifying these changes at the molecular level.