scholarly journals Measuring symptoms severity in carpal tunnel syndrome: score agreement and responsiveness of the Atroshi-Lyrén 6-item symptoms scale and the Boston symptom severity scale

Author(s):  
Kamelia Möllestam ◽  
Roberto S. Rosales ◽  
Per-Erik Lyrén ◽  
Isam Atroshi

Abstract Purpose To assess score agreement between the Atroshi-Lyrén 6-item symptoms scale and the Boston 11-item symptom severity scale and compare their responsiveness in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome before and after carpal tunnel release surgery. Methods This prospective cohort study included 3 cohorts that completed the A-L and Boston scales (conventional score 1–5) on the same occasion: a preoperative and short-term postoperative cohort (212 patients), a mid-term postoperative cohort (101 patients), and a long-term postoperative cohort (124 patients). Agreement was assessed with Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient and Passing-Bablok regression analysis. Analyses using item response theory were conducted on responses from the preoperative/short-term postoperative cohort including testing of item infit/outfit. Reliability was assessed with Cronbach alpha. Overall and sex-specific effect sizes were calculated using Cohen’s d. Results Lin’s CCCs were high (0.81–0.91). Passing-Bablok analysis showed constant and proportional differences in all cohorts except preoperative to short-term postoperative change. Both scales showed high reliability (alpha, 0.88–0.93). The IRT-based analyses showed infit/outfit values within the desired range. With IRT-based scoring, the A-L scale had significantly higher responsiveness than the Boston scale, overall (d, 2.02 vs 1.59), in women (d, 2.22 vs 1.77) and in men (d, 1.74 vs 1.36). Conclusion The Atroshi-Lyrén 6-item symptoms scale and the Boston 11-item symptom severity scale show good agreement but are not equivalent in measuring CTS-related symptoms severity. When using IRT-based scoring, the Atroshi-Lyrén scale demonstrated significantly higher responsiveness.

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-350
Author(s):  
J. Multanen ◽  
J. Ylinen ◽  
T. Karjalainen ◽  
H. Kautiainen ◽  
J. P. Repo ◽  
...  

Background and Aims: The Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire is the most commonly used outcome measure in the assessment of carpal tunnel syndrome. The purpose of this study was to translate the original Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire into Finnish and validate its psychometric properties. Materials and Methods: We translated and culturally adapted the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire into Finnish. Subsequently, 193 patients completed the Finnish version of the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire, 6-Item CTS Symptoms Scale, and EuroQol 5 Dimensions 12 months after carpal tunnel release. The Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire was re-administered after a 2-week interval. We calculated construct validity, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and coefficient of repeatability. We also examined floor and ceiling effects. Results: The cross-cultural adaptation required only minor modifications to the questions. Both subscales of the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (Symptom Severity Scale and Functional Status Scale) correlated significantly with the CTS-6 and EuroQol 5 Dimensions, indicating good construct validity. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.93 for both the Symptom Severity Scale and Functional Status Scale, indicating high internal consistency. Test–retest reliability was excellent, with an intraclass correlation coefficient greater than 0.8 for both scales. The coefficient of repeatability was 0.80 for the Symptom Severity Scale and 0.68 for the Functional Status Scale. We observed a floor effect in the Functional Status Scale in 28% of participants. Conclusion: Our study shows that the present Finnish version of the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire is reliable and valid for the evaluation of symptom severity and functional status among surgically treated carpal tunnel syndrome patients. However, owing to the floor effect, the Functional Status Score may have limited ability to detect differences in patients with good post-operative outcomes.


Author(s):  
Mariana Sutopo ◽  
Yudy Goysal ◽  
David Gunawan Umbas ◽  
Susi Aulina ◽  
Louis Kwandou ◽  
...  

     EFFECT OF STEROID INJECTION TECHNIQUE WITH ULTRASOUND GUIDANCE ON CLINICAL OUTCOMES IN CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME PATIENTSABSTRACTIntroduction: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy in the upper extremity and one of the diseases that causes disability, thereby reducing productivity. This study purpose is to determine the effect of steroid injection techniques with and without ultrasound guidance on clinical outcomes in patients with CTS.Method: This study was a clinical trial with a non-randomized pretest-posttest-control group design. This study subjects were 36 patients with CTS, consisting of 18 wrists receiving steroid injection with ultrasound guidance and 18 wrists without ultrasound guidance.Results: The results showed a significant change in the Symptom Severity Scale (SSS) and Functional Status Scale (FSS) (p<0.05) after treatment in the steroid injection group with and without ultrasound guidance. The results of the unpaired t-test on changes in the SSS between the groups who received steroid injection with ultrasound guidance and without ultrasound guidance showed no significant difference (p>0.05). The results of the Mann-Whitney test on changes in FSS scores between groups who received steroid injections with and without ultrasound guidance showed no significant differences (p>0.05).Discussion: Decrease in Boston SSS and FSS after steroid injections in both groups were in accordance with theory that steroid injection can quickly bind directly to nerve cell receptors and inhibit production of proinflammatory mediators. Whereas results of the study comparing effectiveness of steroid injection techniques with ultrasound guidance and without ultrasound guidance were not significant because observations were only made for 1 week.Keywords: Carpal tunnel syndrome, functional status scale, steroid injection, symptom severity scale, USG-guidedABSTRAKPendahuluan: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) adalah neuropati jebakan yang paling sering pada ekstremitas atas dan merupakan salah satu penyakit yang menyebabkan disabilitas, sehingga menurunkan produktivitas. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui pengaruh teknik injeksi steroid dengan dan tanpa tuntunan ultrasonografi terhadap luaran klinis pada pasien carpal tunnel syndrome.Metode: Penelitian ini adalah uji klinis dengan rancangan non-randomized pretest-posttest-control-group. Penelitian ini dilakukan terhadap 36 pasien CTS, terdiri dari 18 pergelangan tangan yang mendapat injeksi steroid dengan tuntunan USG dan 18 pergelangan tangan tanpa tuntunan USG.Hasil: Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya perubahan Symptom Severity Scale (SSS) dan Functional Status Scale (FSS) yang bermakna (p<0,05) setelah perlakuan pada kelompok injeksi steroid dengan dan tanpa tuntunan USG. Hasil uji-t tidak berpasangan terhadap perubahan SSS antara kelompok yang mendapat injeksi steroid dengan tuntunan USG dan tanpa tuntunan USG menunjukkan perbedaan tidak bermakna (p>0,05). Hasil uji Mann-Whitney terhadap perubahan skor FSS antara kelompok yang mendapat injeksi steroid dengan tuntunan USG dan tanpa tuntunan USG menunjukkan perbedaan tidak bermakna (p>0,05).Diskusi: Penurunan SSS dan FSS kuesioner Boston setelah dilakukan injeksi steroid pada kedua kelompok ini sesuai dengan teori bahwa injeksi steroid dapat dengan cepat berikatan langsung dengan reseptor sel saraf. Ikatan steroid dengan reseptor di sel saraf dapat menghambat produksi mediator proinflamasi. Sedangkan hasil penelitian yang membandingkan efektivitas teknik injeksi steroid dengan tuntunan USG dan tanpa tuntunan USG tidak bermakna karena pengamatan hanya dilakukan selama 1 minggu.Kata kunci: Carpal tunnel syndrome, functional status scale, injeksi steroid, symptom severity scale, USG-guided


Hand ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 593-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Bougea ◽  
Thomas Zambelis ◽  
Panagiota Voskou ◽  
Paraskevi Zacharoula Katsika ◽  
Chara Tzavara ◽  
...  

Background: The Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) is an easy, brief, self-administered questionnaire developed by Levine et al for the assessment of severity of symptoms and functional status of patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. The aim of our study was to develop and validate the Greek version of BCTQ. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 90 patients with idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome. The original English version of BCTQ was adapted into Greek using forward and backward translation. Reliability was assessed by internal consistency (Cronbach α and item-total correlation) and reproducibility. Validity was examined by correlating the Boston Questionnaire scores to Canterbury severity scale for electrodiagnostic severity grading. Results: The Greek version showed high reliability (Cronbach α 0.89 for Symptom Severity Scale and 0.93 for Functional Status Scale) and construct validity (Pearson correlation coefficient 0.53 for Symptom Severity Scale and 0.68 for Functional Status Scale). Test-retest were 0.75 for Symptom Severity Scale and 0.79 for Functional Status Scale ( P < .05). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the optimal cutoff of Symptom Severity Scale for the discrimination of subjects with low electrodiagnostic severity grading than subjects with high electrodiagnostic severity grading was 1.95 with sensitivity equal to 75.5% and specificity equal to 68.3%. Conclusions: The Greek version of the BCTQ is a valid, reliable screening tool for assessment in daily practice of symptoms and functional status in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Jehan Zeb ◽  
Muhammad Ullah ◽  
Muhammad Shoaib ◽  
Syed Shah ◽  
Walayat Shah ◽  
...  

Purpose: To determine the outcome of microscopic carpal tunnel release in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome who failed to respond to conservative treatment. Methodology: This descriptive case series was carried at Department of Neurosurgery, D.H.Q Hosptial Charsadda over 1 year from Jan 2019 to Dec 2020, indicate the sampling method used to select the study participants involving 94 patients; both men and women with ages in the range 30-70 years diagnosed of carpal tunnel syndrome who failed to respond to conservative treatment and were planned for surgical release. Microscopic CTS release was performed and outcomes were assessed in terms of improvement in VAS score for wrist pain, symptom severity score and function status scale 3 and 6 months after the surgery. Recurrence of symptoms was also noted. A written informed consent was obtained from every patient. Indicate the method of data collection and data analysis Findings: The mean age of the patients with carpal tunnel syndrome was 41.6±7.9 years. There was slight female predominance with male to female ratio of 1:2.1. History of diabetes was recorded in 29 (31.0%) patients while 34 (37.0%) patients were obese. Right hand was more frequently involved (53.0%) than the left hand (47.0%). The mean VAS score for wrist pain reduced from 7.9±1.2 at baseline to 1.8±0.7 3 months after the surgery (p- value<0.001). Similar improvements were also noted in symptom severity score (3.8±0.8 to 1.6±0.8; p- value<0.001) and function status scale (2.7±0.8 to 1.5±0.8; p-value<0.001) at the end of 3 months after the surgery. Recurrence was not observed in any patient at the end of 6 months follow-up. Recommendation: Microscopic carpal tunnel release was found to relieve patient’s symptoms and improve wrist function yet with minimal scarring and without recurrence which advocates its preferred use in future practice provided necessary surgical skills and hardware are available.


2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (9) ◽  
pp. 638-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devrimsel Harika Ertem ◽  
Tuba Cerrahoglu Sirin ◽  
Ilhan Yilmaz

ABSTRACT Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common mononeuropathy caused by entrapment of the median nerve at the wrist. Common treatment options for CTS include oral analgesics, splinting, hand therapy, local injections with steroids or surgery. Objective: The aim of the present study was to assess the short-term clinical and electrophysiological outcomes of local corticosteroid injection (LCI) in patients with symptomatic CTS. Methods: Electrophysiological parameters were evaluated before and three months after LCI. Moreover, the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), the Boston Symptom Severity Scale (SSS) and the Functional Status Scale (FSS) were administered before and after the injection. A mixture of 1 mL (40 mg) of methylprednisolone and 1 mL of 0.5% bupivacaine were injected blindly on the volar side of the forearm between the tendons of the radial carpal flexor muscle and long palmar muscle. Results: A total of 25 patients (45 hands) were enrolled in the study. Twenty women and five men with a mean age of 49.28 ± 11.37 years were included. A statistically significant difference was noted for improvement of sensory conduction velocities, sensory peak latency, and motor distal latency (p = 0.001) after LCI. A significant difference was recorded between pre- and post-injection for NRS, SSS and FSS scores (p = 0.000). Conclusion: Local corticosteroid injection for CTS provides a short-term improvement in neurophysiological and clinical outcomes such as pain intensity, symptom severity and functional ability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-14
Author(s):  
Sagun Pradhan ◽  
Rishi Bista ◽  
Laxman Sharma ◽  
Nabin Poudel ◽  
Bhawana Amatya

Introduction: Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common compression neuropathy in clinical practice and is also the most extensively studied. In Mini-open carpal tunnel release, the transverse carpal ligament is transected using a small open cut at the volar aspect of the proximal palm. The objectives of this study were to determine the functional outcome of mini-open carpal tunnel release procedure, to use the Boston Questionnaire to determine the functional outcome following mini open carpal tunnel release which includes pain, numbness, weakness and fine hand activities. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional was conducted in National After informed consent, the cases who meet the informed criteria were examined and relevant details were filled up in the proforma preoperatively and two weeks post-operatively. Assessment of the patient’s symptom severity and functional status was done with the Boston questionnaire. Results: CTS was most common in the age group of 25-29 years (36.36%) and was predominant in housewives (18.20%). Mean symptom severity scores per person improved from 3.11 pre-operatively to 1.12 post-operatively. Mean functional status scores per person improved from 2.65 pre-operatively to 1.03 post-operatively. There was a statistically significant improvement in postoperative outcomes in our population. Conclusions: The findings in this study indicate that mini-open carpal tunnel release has a good functional outcome. Keywords: carpal tunnel syndrome; compression neuropathy; transverse carpal ligament.


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