Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, Electrical Stimulation
Conditions
Keywords
Cubital tunnel syndrome, Nerve regeneration, Electrical stimulation, Functional outcomes, Randomized control trial, Surgery, Peripheral nerve regeneration
Brief summary
Cubital tunnel syndrome is the second most common compression neuropathy. In severe cases, functional recovery, even with surgery, is often poor. Therefore, alternative adjunct treatments capable of increasing the speed of nerve regeneration are much needed.
Detailed description
The effect of brief conditioning electrical stimulation on nerve regeneration has been showed to be efficacy in animal studies. In this double-blind, randomized, controlled study, the investigators will compare the physiological and functional improvements post surgery compared with the controls who received surgery alone. Because electrical stimulation is reasonably well-tolerated and the treatment only takes an hour, it is a potentially feasible clinical tool for patients with severe nerve injury.
Interventions
PROCEDUREElectrical stimulation
Patients with cubital tunnel syndrome will receive either surgery and sham stimulation, or conditioning electrical stimulation 7 days prior to surgery
Sponsors
University of Alberta
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)
Intervention model description
Double-blind randomized controlled study
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 79 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
1. Patients aged \>18 yr, 2. If signs and symptoms of severe CuTS (ie, McGowan-Goldberg grade 3) were observed, 3. If needle EMG examination showed evidence of chronic motor axonal loss and reduced recruitment in the ulnar-innervated intrinsic hand muscles, and 4. If electrophysiologic evidence of severe motor axonal loss with motor unit number estimation (MUNE) greater than 2 standard deviations below the normative mean.
Exclusion criteria
1\) Patients were excluded if they had concurrent nerve injury, prior surgery for CuTS or coexisting neurologic conditions
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Motor unit number estimation | 3 years | A quantitative physiological measure of the number of motor nerve fibres in the target muscle |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Key pinch strength | 3 years | A functional measure of the ulnar intrinsic hand muscles using a dynamometer |
| Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) Questionnaire | 3 years | A questionnaire to quantify the severity of motor and sensory symptoms |
Countries
Canada
Contacts
CONTACTMing Chan
Outcome results
None listed