Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome is a sporadically occurring abnormality due to compression of median nerve. It is exceedingly rare for it to be caused by thrombosis of persistent median artery.
Case report: A forty two year old female was referred for ultrasound examination due to ongoing wrist pain, not relived by pain killers and mild paresthesia on the radial side of the hand. High resolution ultrasound and Doppler revealed a thrombosed persistent median artery and associated bifurcated median nerve. The thrombus resolved on treatment with anticoagulants.
Conclusions: Ultrasound examination of the wrist when done for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome should preferably include looking for persistent median artery and its patency.
Keywords: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – diagnosis; Doppler ultrasonography; bifurcated median nerve; thrombosed peristent median artery.