Dataset Information

Clinical diagnosis and wide-awake surgical treatment of proximal median nerve entrapment at the elbow: a prospective study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Proximal median nerve entrapment (PMNE, or pronator syndrome) at the elbow has traditionally been considered an elusive and rare diagnosis, as it is seldom detectable using electrophysiological techniques. In this paper, the clinical manifestations, physical diagnosis, surgical technique, and results of surgical treatment of PMNE are presented, with accompanying instructional video.

Patients/methods

During 2011, 44 patients with PMNE were surgically released and followed prospectively, 22 women/22 men, mean age 48.8 (range 25-66). The patients were equally distributed between right/left hands (23/21) and the dominant hand was treated in 56 % of cases. The diagnosis was based on: (1) weakness in median innervated muscles distal to the lacertus fibrosus; (2) pain upon pressure over the median nerve at the level of the lacertus fibrosus; and (3) positive scratch collapse test. A minimally invasive surgical treatment using only local anesthesia with lidocaine-epinephrine and no tourniquet was used, and direct perioperative return of strength in median innervated muscles was seen in all subjects.

Results

The average preoperative quick DASH was 35.4 (range 6.8-77.2); work DASH, 44.3 (6.25-100); and activity DASH, 61.6 (12.5-100). There were 71.1 % patients who completed the 6-month follow-up, and the average postoperative quick DASH was 12.7 (range 0-43.1), which is a statistically significant reduction (p?ConclusionsPMNE at the level of the lacertus fibrosus should be called lacertus tunnel syndrome to distinguish it from other levels of median nerve entrapment. It is a clinical diagnosis based on three distinct clinical findings: weakness, pain over point of compression, and positive scratch collapse test. Surgical release in local anesthesia allows for a safe, ambulatory, and cost-efficient procedure with low morbidity.

SUBMITTER: Hagert E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3574476 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Clinical diagnosis and wide-awake surgical treatment of proximal median nerve entrapment at the elbow: a prospective study.

Hagert Elisabet E

Hand (New York, N.Y.) 20130301 1

<h4>Background</h4>Proximal median nerve entrapment (PMNE, or pronator syndrome) at the elbow has traditionally been considered an elusive and rare diagnosis, as it is seldom detectable using electrophysiological techniques. In this paper, the clinical manifestations, physical diagnosis, surgical technique, and results of surgical treatment of PMNE are presented, with accompanying instructional video.<h4>Patients/methods</h4>During 2011, 44 patients with PMNE were surgically released and followe ...[more]

PMID: 24426891

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Project description:ObjectiveWe sought to determine lesion sites and spatial lesion patterns in spontaneous anterior interosseous nerve syndrome (AINS) with high-resolution magnetic resonance neurography (MRN).MethodsIn 20 patients with AINS and 20 age- and sex-matched controls, MRN of median nerve fascicles was performed at 3T with large longitudinal anatomical coverage (upper arm/elbow/forearm): 135 contiguous axial slices (T2-weighted: echo time/repetition time 52/7,020 ms, time of acquisition: 15 minutes 48 seconds, in-plane resolution: 0.25 × 0.25 mm). Lesion classification was performed by visual inspection and by quantitative analysis of normalized T2 signal after segmentation of median nerve voxels.ResultsIn all patients and no controls, T2 lesions of individual fascicles were observed within upper arm median nerve trunk and strictly followed a somatotopic/internal topography: affected were those motor fascicles that will form the anterior interosseous nerve further distally while other fascicles were spared. Predominant lesion focus was at a mean distance of 14.6 ± 5.4 cm proximal to the humeroradial joint. Discriminative power of quantitative T2 signal analysis and of qualitative lesion rating was high, with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity (p < 0.0001). Fascicular T2 lesion patterns were rated as multifocal (n = 17), monofocal (n = 2), or indeterminate (n = 1) by 2 independent observers with strong agreement (kappa = 0.83).ConclusionIt has been difficult to prove the existence of fascicular/partial nerve lesions in spontaneous neuropathies using clinical and electrophysiologic findings. With MRN, fascicular lesions with strict somatotopic organization were observed in upper arm median nerve trunks of patients with AINS. Our data strongly support that AINS in the majority of cases is not a surgically treatable entrapment neuropathy but a multifocal mononeuropathy selectively involving, within the main trunk of the median nerve, the motor fascicles that continue distally to form the anterior interosseous nerve.

Dataset Information

Clinical diagnosis and wide-awake surgical treatment of proximal median nerve entrapment at the elbow: a prospective study.

Background

Patients/methods

Results

Publications

Clinical diagnosis and wide-awake surgical treatment of proximal median nerve entrapment at the elbow: a prospective study.

Similar Datasets

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