Pain as a determinant of health-related quality of life in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome; a case-controlled study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is an entrapment neuropathy accounting for up to 90% of nerve compression syndromes. It causes both positive and negative symptoms in the hands. These symptoms, especially pain, can be debilitating, which can in turn have a negative effect on patients’ quality of life (QoL). The aim of this cross-sectional case-controlled study was two-fold; to compare the QoL of patients with CTS and subjects without CTS and to determine the effect of pain on QoL in patients with CTS.

Methods: All patients underwent nerve conduction studies (NCS) and were classified into mild, moderate, severe. QoL was assessed via the SF-36 questionnaire.

Results: Fifty-one patients and 45 age- and gender-matched controls were recruited. Prevalence of pain (determined as scoring 4 or above on a visual analog scale) in CTS was 39.2%. CTS patient health-related QOL scores were significantly reduced (p < 0.001) across all of the SF-36 domains, compared to the healthy control group scores. After adjusting for gender presence of pain was still significantly negatively correlated with scores for physical functioning (beta −0.283, p = 0.036).

Conclusions: Patients with CTS have a significantly worse QoL compared to subjects without CTS. In addition, the presence of pain is a significant determinant of physical functioning in patients who have been diagnosed with CTS.

KEYWORDS:

• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• pain
• quality of life

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the physiologists and doctors from the Neurophysiology department at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for their contribution to data collection. Without their cooperation, this study would not have been possible. They would also like to thank all of the participants who gave their time to complete the study.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

Peer reviewers and authors on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.