The cutaneous silent period in carpal tunnel syndrome.

OBJECTIVES

The cutaneous silent period (CSP), a sustained voluntary contraction following a painful stimulus applied over the appropriate dermatome produces a brief period of electrical silence, may be useful if the routine nerve conduction studies and needle electromyography are insufficient to diagnose entrapment neuropathies.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

To investigate whether symptomatic or asymptomatic patients with entrapment neuropathies are differed in terms of CSP, one hundred fifty four hands of 58 patient and 19 controls were studied according to the clinical and electrophysiological findings.

RESULTS

CSP latency and duration could be affected in severe forms of entrapment neuropathies. However, even in patients with dysesthetic pain -which lead to the belief that small fibers may be involved-, results of electrophysiological evaluation could not support the clinical findings.

CONCLUSION

In this study it was suggested that CSP studies provide no additional information in entrapment neuropathies.