Journal of Medicine and Life Science

Institute for Medical Science (제주대학교 의과학연구소)
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Ulnar nerve involvement in carpal tunnel syndrome

손목굴증후군에서 척골신경 침범

  • Kang, Sa-Yoon (Department of Neurology, Jeju National University School of Medicine) ;
  • Ko, Keun Hyuk (Department of Neurology, Jeju National University Hospital) ;
  • Kim, Joong Goo (Department of Neurology, Jeju National University Hospital)
  • 강사윤 (제주대학교 의학전문대학원 신경과학교실) ;
  • 고근혁 (제주대학교병원 신경과) ;
  • 김중구 (제주대학교병원 신경과)
  • Received : 2018.11.21
  • Accepted : 2018.12.05
  • Published : 2018.12.31
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Abstract

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy caused by focal compression of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel. However, many patients with CTS, who are diagnosed clinically and confirmed with electrophysiological studies, complain of the sensory symptoms extends to the ulnar nerve territory. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a dysfunction in sensory fibers of the ulnar nerve was present or not in hands with CTS patients who had extramedian spread of sensory symptoms over the hand. We retrospectively analyzed the recording of the subjects who were diagnosed with CTS within a one-year-period of time. After exclusions, 136 hands recordings of 87 patient were included. We compared the results of median and ulnar nerve sensory conduction studies between normal hands and hands with CTS. We did not detect statistically significant difference on all parameters of ulnar nerve sensory conduction studies between the normal hands and the hands with CTS. The parameters of the obtained in median nerve sensory conduction studies were statistically different between the healthy control and CTS patients. The hands with CTS showed similar rate of ulnar sensory conduction abnormalities compared with the normal hands. In conclusion, our study showed that none of the parameters in ulnar sensory nerve conduction studies differ between two groups. Accordingly, our study revealed that ulnar nerve involvement does not contribute in CTS patients underlying the spread of paresthesia extends to the ulnar nerve territory.

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References

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