Ultrasound evaluation on carpal tunnel syndrome before and after bariatric surgery

To evaluate the prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome in candidates for bariatric surgery comparing with the non-obese population and verify the effects on it of bariatric treatment.

We studied three groups of individuals: 1) patients waiting for bariatric surgery (preoperative); 2) individuals who had already undergone the procedure (postoperative); and 3) control group. We collected demographic and clinical data of carpal tunnel syndrome. The Ultrasound examination was carried out to diagnose the syndrome by measuring the median nerve area.

We included 329 individuals (114 in the preoperative group, 90 in the postoperative group and 125 controls). There was a higher prevalence of paresthesias (p=0.0003), clinical tests (p=0.0083) on the preoperative group when compared with controls (p<0.00001). There were lowe levels of paresthesias (p=0.0002) and median nerve area (p=0.04) in postoperative patients but with no significant difference in general. A significant difference was found between the preoperative and postoperative groups (p=0.05) in those who performed non-manual work.

There was a higher prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome in the preoperative group compared with the control one, but no significant difference was observed between the pre and postoperative groups in general. There was difference between pre and postoperative groups for non-manual workers.