Weakness of both hands due to nerve compression

[datta]

Dear Sir,
My mother is 63 years old.  She has lost strength from both her hands.  The reason being nerve compression in the neck.  It innitially started at the top of two fingers of her right hand, and gradually she has lost strength from both her hands.  Both her hands are hanging from the shoulder.  I have tried each and every medicine prescribed by doctors.  Reputed doctors here have said that there is no medicine available for this disease.  I am writing this mail as a final try to find out if any medicine is available to bring my mother back to life.
Following medical history of my mom may be useful for you to make any decision:

1. My mom is diabetic...so far in controlled stage
2. She is also a patient for osteo arthritis.
3. she has taken painkillers for almost 20 years for osteo arthritis
4. the nerves problem started after 6 months of giving steroid injection in her knees for osteo arthritis (whether the above disease is the result with this medicine??)
5. She also has blood pressure

Request you to suggest if there is any medicine available for my mother.

Regards
Dattatray
Mumbai
India
Tel [phone]

[hketsun]

Also Hirayama disease is possible but your mother should be too old for this disease to occur.

[hketsun]

Hi,

Could you clarify a bit on compression at the neck? How was this diagnosed? Was it through an MRI of the spine or the X-Ray of the cervical spine? If it is bilateral and is located in the cervical spine, surgery should help.

But the cause can be manifold: Are there any pain associated? Steroid injection at the knee should not cause this symptoms, as it is local and not systemic. If it's sysemic, it may cause osteoporosis leading to fracture, but if it's a fracture than it should not be at cervical spine and there should be more disastrous results.

There is no medicine indeed if the cause is due to physical compression, surgery is the treatment of option. However, are there any other areas being affected other than the upper limbs? And are other nerve also affected? Your mother has Diabetes and poorly controlled diabetes can lead to neuropathy which has similar symptoms as well. Management of Diabetes neuropathy is of course a stricter control of blood glucose to prevent deterioraton. However, it usually starts from the legs instead of the hands and upper limbs.

These are just my opinions and please talk to your doctor for any actions you will take!!

[Tome4]

my grandfather is having similar problems. He is diabetic as well, but he has recently had a feeding tube removed. I wonder if that is what is causing his inability to move his hand.