Objective
The purpose of this study was to determine the natural history of symptomatic hands without electrodiagnostic evidence of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Method: This study was comprised of 88 hands of 49 subjects with symptoms consistent with CTS without median mononeuropathy who were recruited during a community health examination and followed after two years. 88 hands of 44 people with age and sex-matched healthy controls were followed for comparison. Symptoms and electrodiagnostic findings were compared between the two groups. Results: 62 hands of the symptomatic group had persistent symptoms after 2 years while 16 hands of the control group had symptoms consistent with CTS. Median motor distal latencies were significantly delayed after two years in the symptomatic group (p＜0.05). Median sensory latencies were also delayed in the symptomatic group, but this was not statistically significant (p=0.064). The occurrence rate of median mononeuropathy at wrist was significantly higher in the symptomatic group than in the control group (13.6% vs. 2.3%)(p＜0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study suggested that a significant number of symptomatic hands without electrodiagnostic evidence of CTS may have persistent symptoms and may progress to electrodiagnostically evident CTS. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2006; 30: 346-352)
