Brismar T, Ekenvall L
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1992 Jun;85(3):173-6. doi: 10.1016/0168-5597(92)90129-y.
Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy in the hands are common among workers using vibrating tools. The mechanism for this and its relation to carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) was studied in workers exposed to vibration at their workplace (17), along with a control group of healthy construction workers with heavy manual work but without vibration exposure (10). Patients with uni- or bilateral CTS (11) and a group of healthy volunteers without manual work (9) were included for comparison. Median nerve conduction velocities were measured both over the carpal tunnel and in a more distal segment. Vibration exposed workers had similar conduction velocities to unexposed construction workers. The subgroup of vibration exposed patients with symptoms from the hands had normal conduction in the ulnar nerve but demonstrated a decrease in median nerve conduction comparable (but less pronounced) with the CTS group. On a group basis these results indicated that the median nerve is most vulnerable for hand-arm vibrations. However, the conduction defects were not pronounced enough to diagnose CTS in most individual cases.
手部周围神经病变的症状在使用振动工具的工人中很常见。在工作场所接触振动的工人（17名）以及一组从事繁重体力劳动但未接触振动的健康建筑工人对照组（10名）中，研究了其发病机制及其与腕管综合征（CTS）的关系。纳入了单侧或双侧CTS患者（11名）和一组无体力劳动的健康志愿者（9名）进行比较。在腕管上方和更远端节段测量正中神经传导速度。接触振动的工人与未接触振动的建筑工人具有相似的传导速度。手部有症状的接触振动患者亚组尺神经传导正常，但正中神经传导速度下降，与CTS组相当（但程度较轻）。从群体角度来看，这些结果表明正中神经对手臂振动最为敏感。然而，在大多数个体病例中，传导缺陷并不足以诊断CTS。
