Tinel sign

The Tinel's sign is a clinical sign that is being tested in the neurological examination, subject to certain questions. It refers to demyelinating and remyelinating processes of peripheral nerves. It is named after Paul Hoffmann (1884-1962, physiologist in Freiburg) and Jules Tinel (1879-1952, a neurologist in Paris).

It plays a special role in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome: is there examined by tapping the volar ( inboard ) side of the wrist. At a pressure injury of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel it is positive: the examinee feels uncomfortable, electrifying feeling in the distal sensory area supplied by the median nerve, ie, in the thumb, index and middle fingers. Even with damage to other superficial nerves extending it can be triggered by you tap analogous to the course of the nerve or the suspected lesion. The discomfort occurs because the newly sprouting nerve fibers are myelinated, only thin and directly stimulated by mechanical stress on the nerve.

In Hoffmann's publication it is used to assess the success of surgical sutures nerve: reinnervation of an uncomplicated one would expect a growth of the axon of about 1-5 mm per day. The body in the course of the nerve, where the sign is positive, indicates the current position. You should move gradually in the ideal case, along the road towards success nervous organ.

Similar studies

• Phalen's sign
• Bottles characters
• Froment sign