Resumo

VERGARA-AMADOR, Enrique; VIVEROS-CARRENO, Juan Manuel  e  AHUMADA-GRAUBARD, Fernando. Electrophysiological evolution in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome treated with surgery. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2016, vol.64, n.1, pp.47-51. ISSN 0120-0011.  https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v64n1.51311.

Background. In surgical release of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), electrodiagnostic (EDX) studies can quantify the severity of the disease. Currently, studies that have assessed electrophysiological evolution as an objective result of decompression surgery are controversial, in fact the correlation between trials and the clinical perception of improvement has been described as modest. Objective. To evaluate the performance of the electrophysiological parameters in a series of patients that went under surgery due to CTS and to determine the best performing electrophysiological variables. Materials and Methods. An observational study of a retrospective cohort of patients operated by decompression of CTS and evaluated through electrodiagnostic studies before and after surgery was performed. Results. 48 patients with an average age of 48 years were analyzed. According to the Padua scale, 52% of the patients showed some improvement. Motor and sensory distal latencies of the median nerve and the sensory delta improved showing statistically significant results. Ulnar nerve latencies remained unchanged. Conclusions. The improvement of the electrophysiological parameters after a release of CTS is controversial. Some reports show improvement from the first month, particularly in the sensory conduction velocity. Other studies show significant improvements between post-operative weeks 18 and 42, with a faster motor recovery than sensitive. In this study, 52% of the patients showed an improvement in terms of decreasing the severity degree. Motor and sensory distal latencies and sensory median delta also showed an improvement. These results suggest that electrodiagnostic studies are effective in objectively assessing patients with CTS and that it is probably the only test able to show improvement after a release of the CTS.

Palavras-chave : Carpal Tunnel Syndrome; Median Nerve; Electrodiagnosis.

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