I am starting to get very nervous about my carpel tunnel/ trigger finger surgery in May 4th. My concern is that my neck and shoulder pain came back and I could barely move my neck. My doctor told me to go up to 10 mg for a few days then back to 5 mg.
My concern is that when I asked the doctor if this would affect my surgery, he said my surgeon may have concerns. The surgeon never seemed concerned with my steroid use. From what I have read about prednisone and surgery has me very nervous about having the surgery. Has anyone had surgery while on prednisone?
Thank you all so much!
-Kim
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Quite a few on the forum have had hip and knee replacement surgery while on pred. That short term increase in pred won't have any effect at all - but you do need to make sure the anaesthetist knows before they take you to theatre as you will probably need hydrocortisone cover during the procedure which will be administered by infusion.
It very much depends on the surgeon - some will happily operate at 10mg or more if necessary but others are less willing and try to make patients reduce their pred even as far as zero which obviously isn't an option for most of us. It is something to bring up with the surgical team in advance to stop you worrying about it.
Thank you for your detailed answer. How much prednisone were you taking at the time of the surgery? The trigger finger bothers me the most and it is numb. I have tried the injection. It helped the carpel tunnel and I wear a brace at night which works well. When you manipulation what did they do. Thanks again
Thank you for your response. I just cancelled the surgery. I contacted a chiropractor after hearing from another person on this thread. He said he has had good luck helping people with carpel tunnel. The trigger finger maybe a little more involved. I thought I would give it a shot…. Always can have the surgery if it does not work. Best…
Thank you. I did cancel the surgery for now. I am going to try other things before going to surgery. I was not happy that the surgeon never said anything about the concern. When my doctor upped my prednisone because of a flair I asked him if there was a concern and he told me your surgeon may be concerned. I researched it and called the surgeons office. No one got back to me all day so I cancelled. Too stressful right now.
Oh I forgot to mention that I had carpel tunnel , but I saw a doctor who knew about PMR and, he said we will try hand splints first.I used them day and night for months and it did work.
Did you develop carpel tunnel whilst taking Pred or did you already have carpel tunnel? I developed carpel tunnel whilst taking Pred, and was given steroid injection (mistake). My carpel tunnel symptoms disappeared when I reduced Pred to low dosage.
Thank you for your response. I think I had it for years but it only acted up once in a while. It did seem to get worse when I started taking prednisone. I too had the shots. It seemed to help the carpel tunnel but made my trigger finger worst. I sleep with a brace and that helps a lot. For now I am dealing with it, down the road I may need surgery if other things don’t improve. My other hand is having numbness too… so not sure what is going on. Best..
I developed carpel tunnel whilst taking Pred at higher dose. I had really painful hands and was unable to pick things up. I also wore a brace at night which did help a little bit. As I decreased the Pred, carpel tunnel symptoms and numbness started to reduce. My rheumatologist thought that the carpel tunnel/ tendinitis and muscle weakness were most likely caused by the Pred in my case as I had never had any of these symptoms previously.
Thank you. I was down to 4mg recently but had to go up due to a flair. Mine has been about the same, I haven’t noticed a difference with a reduction. My other hand however is going numb when I hold it up… so maybe the prednisone has something to do with it… thanks! Enjoy your day🌻
Hello. I can't comment about surgery whilst on Pred but I have had surgery on both Carpel Tunnels a few years before my PMR. The procedure took 10 to 15 mins and was more stress free that I thought it would be. After the first one I did not need any pain relief, after the second one I took paracetamol for one night. The greatest stress was going out for a local walk before the first one, coming across an elderly gent who had fallen over and suspected a broken ankle, had to call an ambulance and waited with him until it arrived. Whilst having the proceedure I related this story and said I nearly did not make it to the hospital. The surgeon replied...."I've heard some excuses in my time.....!"
Hi I did have carpal tunnel surgery while on 7 mg of Prednisone. Surgeon was fine with it. I was more concerned than him. I healed just fine. No problems at all. It will be ok. Best Wishes!
I had surgery on cataracts and they even gave me steroids in my iv. Then I had back surgery last August and they never reduced my steroids and I did fine healing. At your dose I would not be worried. I’ve had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands and a trigger thumb before PMR and recovered well.Worrying will only cause stress on your body and we all know stress kicks up PMR pain.
Do your best to reduce your stress. It’s not easy but you will be free of the pain in your hands soon. Take care.
I had cataract surgery today, so have been very interested in these posts. (Albeit struggling a bit to read them.)The surgeon was fine with me being on 5mg pred, as was my rheum.
As I was having it done, I knew I'd be feeling achy in my neck/shoulders tomorrow as I was so tense.
(I'm the same with the dentist....!)
Having seen the posts, I won't be surprised if I have to increase the pred, but at the moment I'm taking paracetamol for the eye discomfort, which isn't too bad, thankfully.
Hi, I had carpal tunnel surgery recently ( mid February this year) whilst on 11mg of prednisone. I did let the surgeon know I was taking prednisone but he didn’t say there was a problem and the surgery went well, under a local anaesthetic and took about 25 minutes, all healed fine. It takes a long time to get full strength back in the hand and I definitely felt tired by it all for a as few days but has no issues due to prednisone. Hopefully this helps. Good luck with it all.
I have had 8 orthopedic surgeries including total joint replacements in my situation ,as long as I informed anesthesia, adjusts were made. Education on the "side" effects of pregnison on inflammation and its influence on healing is very important; it will vary according to dose.
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