Thenar hammer syndrome

Chronic traumatic aneurysm of the distal radial artery is rare. The literature offers only 20 cases of chronic traumatic vascular lesions of the thenar region. We present the case of a 58-year-old cheese maker who had done manual work for years and who experienced swelling at the thenar eminence, pain, cold and warm paresthesia and circulatory disturbance in his index finger. Duplex ultrasound and CT angiography revealed an aneurysm of the superficial branch of the radial artery indicating a thenar hammer syndrome. He was subjected to a microsurgical end-to-end repair after resection of the aneurysm. This is the first closely documented case of a true aneurysm of the superficial branch of the radial artery. We also present a comprehensive survey of published studies of chronic vascular lesions of the thenar region related to thenar hammer syndrome and patient occupation, symptoms, diagnostis and therapy.