LITERATURE-REVIEW OF THE USEFULNESS OF NERVE-CONDUCTION STUDIES AND ELECTROMYOGRAPHY FOR THE EVALUATION OF PATIENTS WITH CARPAL-TUNNEL SYNDROME

The sensitivity and specificity of , nerve conduction studies (NCS's) and electromyography (EMG) for the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) were evaluated by a critical review of the literature. With a s earch of the medical literature in English through May 1991, 165 artic les were identified and reviewed on the basis of six criteria of scien tific methodology. The findings of 11 articles that met all six criter ia and the results of 48 additional studies that met four or five crit eria are presented. We concluded that median sensory and motor NCS's a re valid and reproducible clinical laboratory studies that confirm a c linical diagnosis of CTS with a high degree of sensitivity and specifi city. Clinical practice recommendations are made based on a comparison of the sensitivities of the several different median nerve conduction study (NCS) techniques,