Objective: We aimed to evaluate the clinical and electrophysiological characteristicsin the patients with surgical treatment for the cubital tunnel syndrome (CUTS), and to investigate the clinical factors related to muscular atrophy andelectrophysiological severity.
Method: Total 104 cases of CUTS and surgical treatment between October 2005 and December 2011 were reviewed retrospectively. The diagnosis of CUTS was confirmed by electrodiagnostic study. We investigated the clinical and electrophysiological characteristics involving the age, gender, affected side, durationof symptoms, presence of diabetes mellitus (DM), combined carpal tunnel syndrome(CTS), history of trauma, osteoarthritis (OA) of elbow, carrying angle, atrophy of hand intrinsic muscles, and electrophysiological severity scale score (ESSS), and analyzed the factors affecting the muscle atrophy and ESSS.
Results: The mean age of 104 patients (31 women, 73 men) was 56.6 (SD±10.3)years old and mean duration of symptoms was 23.3 (SD±59.1) months. OA was found in the 65 patients and history of trauma was identifed in the 28 patients. DM was found in the 16 patients, and CTS was showed in the 15 patients. The mean carrying angle was 12.3 (SD±6.6). 49 patients had muscular atrophy. Muscular atrophy depended on trauma (p〈0.05). ESSS depended on age and muscular atrophy significantly (p〈0.05), but there was no significant relation with other variables.
Conclusion: Age and muscilar atrophy were identified as significat factors related to electrophysiological severity.