The potential benefit of intracarpal pressure measurement in endoscopic carpal tunnel syndrome surgery - an analysis of EMG findings and pressure values

Abstract

Endoscopic carpal tunnel syndrome surgery is a modern minimally invasive method of carpal tunnel decompression. However, the method does also have its critics, who emphasize thet there is an increased rate of complications in comparison to open procedures.

Median nerve conduction studies were perfomed prior to and 3 months after surgery. Two groups, those with presure studies and those without, were then compared accordign to several EMG parameters such as: median nerve distal motor latency, amplitude of motor response, sensory nerve conduction velocity to the index finer, and amplitude of sensory nerve action potential.

In both groups, we observed similarly significant improvements in all conduction parameters, except the amplitude of motor response, which did not change in either group, i.e. no difference in postoperative EMG between the two groups was observed.