Severe bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome in juvenile chronic arthritis.

Carpal tunnel syndrome, although rare, is known to occur in children mainly because of genetic or metabolic disorders. The clinical findings are variable and include symptoms of burning pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness or atrophy in the hands of the patients. It is usually diagnosed by demonstration of prolonged distal latency times during the electrodiagnostic studies. Reported here is a patient with juvenile chronic arthritis and a diagnosis of severe bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, the first patient reported in the literature, to the best of the authors' knowledge.