Carpal tunnel syndrome: a clinical electrophysiological study of 84 cases

A retrospective study of 84 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), for a total of 118 hands, was performed in order to check clinical aspects of the disease including age of onset, sex, side affected, other associated pathological conditions, and to assess the existence of correlation between the clinical picture and electrophysiological parameters. All patients were subjected to careful clinical observation and electromyographic and electroneurographic examinations. Our study confirms that the female sex is by far predominant, the most interesting ages being the 5th and 6th decades of life and the right side is more affected than the left. None of the patients had a family history of CTS. The sensory pathology is far more frequent than the motor one and the percentage of hands with sensory and motor deficit increases with the duration of the disease. As far as the electrophysiological data is concerned, the most important and also the earliest alterations fundamentally concern the distal motor latency and distal sensory conduction velocity of the median nerve and the amplitude of its sensory action potential (SAP). This study leads us to point out a significant correlation in CTS between electrophysiological (distal motor latency and distal sensory conduction velocity of the median nerve, amplitude of its SAP) and clinical parameters (symptomatology and duration of the disease).