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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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Investigation of the Relation Between Cold Intolerance and Sensory Function After Peripheral Nerve Injuries

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  • presenting/speaker Özge Buket Cesim - Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
  • Çigdem Öksüz - Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

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. DocIFSHT19-1150

doi: 10.3205/19ifssh1504, urn:nbn:de:0183-19ifssh15046

Published: February 6, 2020

© 2020 Cesim 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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Objective: The study was design to investigate the relation between cold intolerance and sensory function after peripheral nerve injuries.

Materials and Methods: Patients between 18 and 65 years who were diagnosed as median and/or ulnar nerve injury in the last year were included. Cold Intolerance Symptom Severity Scale (CISS) was used to assess cold intolerance. To assess sensory function, Rosen Score (RS) which has sensory, motor, pain/discomfort domains was used. Nerve injuries were divided two groups as nerve transections (n=30) and compression neuropathies (n=30).

Results: 15 patients had median, 10 had ulnar and 5 had median and ulnar nerve transection. Mean time after transection injury was 7,33±4,59 months. In compression neuropathies, 24 were carpal, 6 were cubital tunnel syndrome. Mean time after diagnosed as compression neuropathy was 8,71±4,46. Mean CISS score was 51.18±16.69, RS was 1.35±0.54, sensory domain was 0,40±0,28, motor domain was 0,34±0,18 and pain/discomfort domain was 0,58±0,34 in nerve transections. Mean CISS score was 52.46±16.23, RS was 1.87±0.42, sensory domain was 0,80±0,13, motor domain was 0,56±0,23 and pain/discomfort domain was 0,51±0,27 in compression neuropathies. CISS score moderately and negatively correlated with RS (p<0.01, r:-0.696), sensory domain (p<0.01, r:-0,449) and pain/discomfort domain (p< 0.01, r:-0.691) and did not correlate with motor domain (p >0.05) in nerve transections. In compression neuropathies CISS score moderately and negatively correlated with RS (p<0.05, r:-0.378) and pain/discomfort domain (p< 0.01, r:-0.505), and did not correlate with sensory and motor domain (p >0.05).

Conclusions: We concluded that sensory function and pain/discomfort worsened as cold intolerance was seen in peripheral nerve injuries. This suggests that severity of cold intolerance may decrease as sensory functions develop in these patients. Therefore interventions for sensory function such as desensitization, pain management or allodynia treatment may reduce the severity of cold intolerance.