Significance of Early Diagnostic of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Abstract

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common compressive neuropathy. The conservative treatment remains the first therapeutic choice in the treatment of mild and moderate CTS. The aim of this paper was to examine the average age of female patients with CTS diagnosed by EMNG, the frequency of bilateral CTS and its correlation with the age, and to determine the grade of electrophysiological damage of the nerve when the CTS diagnosis is confirmed for the first time. The retrospective examination included 187 female patients, aged from 27 to 79, with complains on unilateral CTS. All patients underwent EMNG for confirmation of CTS and the degree of damage to median nerve. Statistical analysis was performed by methods of descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Student t-test. The value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The average age of the female examinees was 54.53 years. The bilateral CTS was confirmed in 67.9 %, most often of a moderate degree and more often on the right hand. No statistically significant difference was found in grades of CTS between the analysed age groups of patients that had the bilateral CTS (p = 0.206), nor there was a difference in years of life between the patients with unilateral and bilateral CTS (p = 0.638). Bilaterality of CTS, as well as the degree of the damage are not connected with age. The patients report timely for the first examination and diagnostics of CTS when there is still a possibility of the conservative treatment.