Objective

Describe the medical and professional consequences in victims of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Material/patients and methods

Exhaustive and descriptive study on 233 cases of carpal tunnel syndrome identified in two occupational medicine departments of the center of Tunisia from 2005 to 2010. The Boston questionnaire was used to assess the functional disability.

Results

To study the medical and professional becoming, we contacted 128 employees (54.9% of response rate). During the study period, 81 salaried (63.3%) kept the same job; seven employees (5.5%) had a workstation arrangement. An outplacement was noted in 16 employees (12.5%). Of the 24 who lost their jobs, four employees were dismissed, 15 employees left their companies at the end of their contract, three employees resigned and two employees were put on early retirement. The Boston questionnaire was evaluated in 96 patients. Six patients had severe symptoms and functional status was considered severe in four patients.

The analytical study of the professional future showed that the prevention policy was correlated with the employee’s age, employment status, job tenure and the company’s size. Vocational rehabilitation was correlated with the declaration of the occupational disease and the sector.

Discussion–conclusion

The carpal tunnel syndrome which is a “socio-economic phenomenon” with significant adverse effects on employees’ health requires an adequate preventive measures and a multidisciplinary approach.