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14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT)

17.06. - 21.06.2019, Berlin

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Do we need electrophysiological measurements for the diagnostics of carpal tunnel syndrome

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  • presenting/speaker Balazs Lenkei - Miskolc Hand Surgery Center, Miskolc, Hungary
  • Adrienn Lakatos - Miskolc Hand Surgery Center, Miskolc, Hungary
  • Zsolt Szabo - Miskolc Hand Surgery Center, Miskolc, Hungary

International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy. 14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT). Berlin, 17.-21.06.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2020. DocIFSSH19-1087

doi: 10.3205/19ifssh0544, urn:nbn:de:0183-19ifssh05442

Published: February 6, 2020

© 2020 Lenkei et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objectives/Interrogation: In our practice electroneurography (ENG) was an obligatory examination procedure in cases suspicious for carpal tunnel syndrome. Nowadays it seems to have less importance.

The aim of our study was to analyze the necessity of electrophysiological measurements before carpal tunnel release.

Methods: We run a prospective data collection of all operated carpal tunnel patients in our unit. For this study we included the patients operated for carpal tunnel syndrome in the last 4 years. The patient with incomplete datasheets were excluded from the study. Daytime and nighttime numbness, pain levels and subjective satisfaction of the patient were registered by a Visual Analogue Scale preoperatively and 1 week, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks postoperatively. Significance was evaluated using Z-test (p=0,05).

Results: 168 patients were operated without ENG, and 284 patients had positive ENG previous the operation. In the preoperative data, the ratio of patients with symptoms for less than 3 months was 7 % in the group without ENG and 20% in the group with ENG. The patients with ENG had a longer anamnestic period. The average of the VAS points for night pain was 6,99 VAS for those without ENG, compared to the with 6,47 ENG group. No other significant differences were found between the two groups. The subjective satisfaction level after 3 months was 8,31 VAS point without ENG and 8,61 with ENG.

Conclusion: Both groups had a good healing tendency. It seems that in the hand of experts, to diagnose and for treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome does not mandatory to have ENG examination. In our view ENG examination should be reserved to those patients with controversial symptoms.