Nerve decompression at the wrist in patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Studies evaluating the effects of nerve release in patients with Charcot-Ma rie-Tooth disease have been extremely limited to date. This series attempts to evaluate the clinical and electrophysiologic effect of nerve release at the wrist in a series of patients with this disease. Five patients with do cumented Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease of the upper extremity were followed c linically and had nerve conduction testing both before and after surgery. T his study shows that there was an improvement in both sensory and motor tes ting after release in a significant proportion of patients (p < 0.05). All patients documented improvement in their sensory latency response postopera tively (100 percent) and most showed improvement in motor latency responses (87 percent). More importantly, however, there seems to be an even greater clinical improvement in preoperative complaints (e.g., paresthesia and pai n) in the majority of the extremities that underwent surgery with all patie nts experiencing initial relief and the majority showing no recurrence (63 percent) at last follow-up. From these results, this relief can be variable , but has lasted for a significant duration postoperatively in the majority , necessitating careful consideration for surgery as a legitimate option fo r patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth.