Clinical and Neurophysiological Evaluation of the Male Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with Regard to Relationship among Occupational Disease, Obesity and Smoking

Abstract

Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship with the smoking, obesity, age, occupation and duration of occupation and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in male patients with electrophysiologically diagnosed as having CTS.

Materials and Methods: 50 male patients with CTS were included into the study. Age, duration of the symptoms, dominant hand, occupation, duration of occupation, smoking status and body mass index (BMI) for all the patients were recorded. Boston Symptom Severity Scale (BSSS) and functional capacity score (FCS) was used for the assessment of the symptom severity. For the electrophysiological evaluation, sensory and motor conduction studies of bilateral median and ulnar nerves were performed.

Results: Mean age of the patients was 48.40±9.61 years. Distribution of the occupations were mostly included the workers of construction, textile, shoemaker and the cooks. The mean score of BSSS and FCS were 22.88±8.385 and 11.40±4.527, respectively. No statistically significant difference was found between the subjects with BMI <25 and BMI >25. CTS patients regarding the age, symptom duration, BSSS and FCS. Duration of the occupation and smoking status did not show any significant correlation with the disease severity.

Conclusion: CTS in males is specifically mostly seen in the workers of construction, textile, shoemaker and the cooks. Although we found no significant association between disease severity and obesity or smoking, studies on larger case series are necessary. To raise awareness of the patients about CTS and occupational disease is an important issue.

Keywords

• carpal tunnel syndrome
• male
• obesity
• occupitional diseases
• smoking

Karpal Tünel Sendromu Tanılı Erkek Olguların Klinik ve Elektrofizyolojik Bulgularının Meslek Hastalığı, Obezite ve Sigara Kullanımıyla İlişkisinin Değerlendirilmesi

Öz

Amaç: Bu çalışmada elektrofizyolojik olarak karpal tünel sendromu (KTS) tanısı almış erkek olgularda sigara kullanımı, obezite, yaş, meslek ve meslek süreleri ile KTS ilişkisinin araştırılmasını amaçladık.

Materyal ve Metot: Çalışmaya KTS tanısı konulan 50 erkek olgu dahil edildi. Hastaların yaşı, semptom süreleri, el dominansları, meslekleri ve meslek süreleri, sigara kullanımları ve vücut kitle indeksi (VKİ) kaydedildi. Semptom şiddeti Boston semptom şiddet skalası (BSŞS) ve fonksiyonel kapasite skorları (FKS) ile değerlendirildi. Elektrofizyolojik değerlendirmede bilateral ulnar median duysal ve motor sinir ileti incelemeleri çalışıldı.

Bulgular: Hastaların yaş ortalaması 48,40±9,61 yıldı. Mesleki dağılımları büyük oranda inşaat, tekstil, ayakkabı işçileri ve aşçılardan oluşturmaktaydı. BSŞS ortalaması 22,88±8,385 ve FKS 11,40±4,527 idi. VKİ <25 ile >25 üzeri olan KTS’lı hastaların yaş, semptom süresi, semptom şiddet ve FKS arasında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı fark saptanmadı. Meslek süreleri ve sigara kullanımıyla hastalık şiddeti arasında bir ilişki saptanmadı.

Sonuç: Erkek KTS özellikle tekstil, inşaat işçileri,ayakkabı üreticileri ve aşçılar gibi işçi sınıfında yüksek oranda görülür. Obezite dereceleri ve sigara kullanımıyla hastalık şiddeti arasında anlamlı ilişki saptamamakla birlikte daha büyük vaka serileri üzerinde çalışmak gereklidir. Çalışanların KTS ile ilgili bilinçlenmesi ve meslek hastalığı farkındalığının oluşturulması önemlidir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• karpal tünel sendromu
• erkek
• meslek hatalıkları
• obesite
• sigara

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