Expert: Dr Ian Jackson - please note UK based - 12/25/2009

Question
About 2 years ago I went for a colonoscopy.  The anesthegiologist put an IV in top of my left hand in the vain.  While this happened I started to tell the doctor my arm is killing me and my arm felt frozen.  I fell asleep.  After this procedure, when I awoke, I think I was OK, but now when I wake up in the morning there is tingling and itching in this hand and my circulation in this left arm from the elbow down is not circulating.  I feel numbness.  Also in my left hand there is some tingling and itchiness.  What could this possibly be?  The doctor just rubbed my arm while I was complaining and said it would be alright and never investigated.  To this day my arm is not the same.  What could this be?

Thank you.

Answer
Hi there Jay
It is likely that the pain you felt in your arm when you were being put to sleep was due to a drug called propofol. It causes discomfort on injection in around 10% and quite severe/distressing pain in under 1% of the population. However there is no evidence of long term effects from this - the pain is a direct effect of the drug on the vein it is being injected into. Veins take the blood back from your hand to your heart and there are lots of them in your arm - so it is difficult to see how this could have caused any effect on your circulation.
So the question is what is causing the numbness in your hand? It could be that you have developed a trapped nerve e.g. the ulnar nerve at the elbow as this would give you a feeling of numbness down your arm from the elbow to the little finger.
Sorry can't help much more than that.
Kind regards
Dr Ian Jackson