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It is ironic that in substantiating a diagnosis of exclusion such as thoracic outlet syndrome, it is critical to exclude an especially wide variety of other diagnoses. We first pare off vascular thoracic outlet syndrome, and make many exclusionary provisions before confirming that a functional electrodiagnostic test is positive with a fair-sized group of qualifying patients with impressive pain that bears no other ready explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrapment means, ˵to be caught in a trap″. Nerve compression syndromes that are caused by entrapment may thus be treated by surgical decompression increasing the free space surrounding the nerve. In e.g. the carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) it is believed that the median nerve is compressed in the carpal tunnel due to an increased pressure within the tunnel. Surgical decompression lowers this compression and thereby the entrapment of the median nerve. It is suggested in textbooks that almost any peripheral nerve can be compressed [1]. It is not the aim of this chapter to discuss all of these – often hypothetical – entrapments and their surgical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]