Preoperative Etiological Diagnosis and Redefinition of Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome

Xinying Huang1,2,4,5#, Zongqi You1,4,5#, Lei Xu1,4,5, Junjian Jiang1,4,5* and Chunyuan Cai3*

1Department of Hand Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, China
2Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, China
3Department of Orthopedics, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, China
4Key Laboratory of Hand Reconstruction, Ministry of Health, China
5Shanghai Key Laboratory of Peripheral Nerve and Microsurgery, China
#These authors contributed equally to this work

^*Correspondance to: Junjian Jiang 

 PDF  Full Text DOI: 10.25107/2474-1647.3496

Abstract

Background: Clarification of etiologies behind Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome (UTS), a compressive neuropathy of the ulnar nerve, has not been valued in clinical practice, which results in impacted therapeutic effect. Here we report a consecutive series with UTS focusing on etiologic diagnosis, which guide surgical strategies choices. Purpose: To clarify etiologies behind Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome (UTS). Methods: 13 patients with UTS have been enrolled in this study between June 2018 and March 2020. All patients adopted imagological examination and electrophysiologic evaluation before operation and received surgical management. The follow-up period was set at least 12 months after surgical intervention and QuickDASH score served as assessment of outcomes. Results: All the etiologies behinds UTS of patients can be clarified by preoperational imagological examination and surgical managements were employed as etiological treatments. All of them gained satisfactory prognosis after more than 12 months of follow-up. Conclusion: All these cases with UTS stem from explicit etiologies and thus careful imaging investigation, early etiologic diagnosis and surgical management guided by preoperative assessment ought to be indispensable for a good rehabilitation, so that choosing surgical management for cases without clear imaging findings should be more cautious and different diagnoses should be considered. Also, since nearly all UTS cases can be found explicit etiologies, the diagnosis of “ulnar tunnel syndrome” seems to be too vague while all these cases can be classified to ulnar nerve injury by clear etiology located at ulnar tunnel.

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Cite the article

Huang X, You Z, Xu L, Jiang J, Cai C. Preoperative Etiological Diagnosis and Redefinition of Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome. Clin Surg. 2022; 7: 3496..