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Natural history of median nerve sensory conduction in industry: Relationship to symptoms and carpal tunnel syndrome in 558 hands over 11 years
Author(s) -
Nathan Peter A.,
Keniston Richard C.,
Myers Lee D.,
Meadows Kenneth D.,
Lockwood Richard S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
muscle and nerve
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.025
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1097-4598
pISSN - 0148-639X
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4598(199806)21:6<711::aid-mus2>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - carpal tunnel syndrome , medicine , median nerve , nerve conduction , wrist , nerve conduction study , natural history , carpal tunnel , sensory nerve , sensory system , carpal tunnel release , persistence (discontinuity) , surgery , psychology , geotechnical engineering , engineering , cognitive psychology
We evaluated the natural history of median nerve sensory conduction, hand/wrist symptoms, and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in an 11‐year longitudinal study of 289 workers from four industries. Twenty hands which had carpal tunnel release surgery were excluded, leaving 558 hands for the primary study group. Overall, the trend was for mean sensory latencies and prevalence of slowing to increase, the prevalence of symptoms to decrease, and the prevalence of CTS to remain unchanged. Among individual hands, nerve conduction abnormalities tended to persist (82% 11‐year persistence), while symptoms fluctuated widely (13% 11‐year persistence). There was a strong, direct linear correlation between initial severity of slowing and subsequent development of CTS; however, most workers who developed de novo slowing did not develop symptoms or CTS. We conclude that changes in conduction status of the median nerve occur naturally with increasing age and do not necessarily lead to symptoms and CTS. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 21:711–721, 1998.