ASSESSMENT OF THE CARPAL-TUNNEL OUTCOME INSTRUMENT IN PATIENTS WITH NERVE-COMPRESSION SYMPTOMS

The outcome movement in medicine has encouraged the development of pat ient-answered questionnaires as measures of well-being. A disease-spec ific questionnaire for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) was introduced by Levine et al. in 1993. We evaluated this questionnaire in 156 consecut ive new patients presenting with pain, numbness, or tingling of the up per extremity. Of these, 114 correctly filled out the carpal tunnel ou tcome instrument. In addition, these patients completed the self-admin istered hand diagram developed by Katz and Stirrat for the diagnosis o f CTS. The 114 patients were classified according to their hand diagra m as classic or probable CTS (n = 47), possible CTS (n = 31), and unli kely CTS (n = 36). The mean symptom severity score in patients classif ied as classic or probable CTS was significantly higher than the mean score in patients classified as possible or unlikely CTS (p < .01). Th e mean scores of items regarding sensory symptoms were significantly h igher in patients with classic or probable CTS compared to patients wi th possible or unlikely CTS (p < .0001). The scores were similar for C TS and non-CTS patients on the functional status subscale.