Changes in the carpal tunnel while wearing the Manu® soft hand brace: a sonographic study.

We studied the effect of the Manu(®) soft hand brace, which has been designed to relieve median nerve entrapment in carpal tunnel syndrome. An observational, controlled study was conducted in 10 participants, five with bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and five controls, using sonography to study changes in the dimensions of the carpal tunnel before and while wearing the brace. An increase in transverse diameter, thinning of the flexor retinaculum, and displacement of the proximal insertion of the lumbrical muscle to the middle finger from the edge of the carpal tunnel were observed in patients while wearing the brace. The changes in the morphology of the carpal tunnel while wearing the Manu(®) support its use as an alternative to a night wrist splint.

Treatment of radiculopathies: a study of efficacy and tollerability of paravertebral oxygen-ozone injections compared with pharmacological anti-inflammatory treatment.

The study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of lumbar paravertebral injections of a gas mixture of Oxygen and Ozone in patients with lumbar radiculopathies caused by L4-L5 or L5-S1 disk herniations compared to a pharmacological therapy based on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Lumbar radiculopathy caused by disc herniation is widely spread. Many therapeutic options are available before steering patients to the surgery. Low back pain and sciatica represent some of the most frequent causes of antinflammatory-analgesic drugs overuse. Recent findings have shown that medical Ozone can be used in the treatment of radicular syndrome caused by herniated intervertebral discs. Although widely spread, there are insufficient published data supporting the effectiveness of this approach in clinical practice. We studied 38 affected patients with acute L5 or S1 radicolopathy. The patients were randomly divided in two groups: A) 20 patients treated with lumbar paravertebral injections of Oxygen and Ozone; B) 18 patients treated pharmacologically with antinflammatory-analgesic drugs. All patients underwent a clinical and neurological examination at baseline (T1) and after 1 (T2), 2 (T3), 4 weeks (T4) and after 3 (T5) and 6 months (T6). An MRI and EMG examination were performed at baseline and after 6 months. The intensity of pain and the outcome of treatments were evaluated in all patients with the Visual Analogue Scale and with the Oswestry Disability Index. We found a reduction of pain and discomfort soon after one week with oxygen-ozone injections compared with pharmacological treatment, but this difference of response became statistically significant after two weeks (50 percent vs 16.6 percent) and is confirmed after 3 and 6 months, when 80 percent of patients treated with injections turned out pain free compared with half of the patients treated pharmacologically. No statistical difference were found in MRI and EMG examinations. No adverse effects were found in any patient of group A. We hypothesize that oxygen-ozone injections in paravertebral regions can induce a direct reduction of root inflammation with a corresponding reduction of pain. The paravertebral injections of oxygen-ozone represent a rapidly effective therapy, easily practicable and secure, in patients with lumbar radicolopathies secondary to disc herniation.

An innovative hand brace for carpal tunnel syndrome: a randomized controlled trial.

We developed a hand brace and studied its efficacy and tolerability in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). We randomized 83 subjects into a treated group, which wore the hand brace at night for 4 weeks, and a control group, which received no treatment. The primary efficacy measure was change in the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) score. Secondary measures were Subjects' Global Impression of Change Questionnaire (SGICQ), median distal motor latency, sensory conduction velocity and amplitude, and neurophysiological class of severity. The treated group showed a reduction in BCTQ symptomatic score (from 2.75 to 1.54 at 4 weeks; P < 0.001) and functional score (from 1.89 to 1.48; P < 0.001). There were no significant changes in the control subjects. SGICQ documented improvement in all treated subjects (P = 0.006). No significant difference was found in electrophysiological measurements, but overall neurophysiological classification shifted to less severe classes in the treated group (P < 0.05). Thus, the study demonstrates that this hand brace is highly efficient in relieving symptoms and functional loss in CTS.

A relief maneuver in carpal tunnel syndrome.

We describe a maneuver that eases or abolishes paresthesias in carpal tunnel syndrome. With the affected hand palm up, the distal metacarpal heads are gently squeezed together; in some instances stretch of digits III and IV is also required. This maneuver may help in the clinical diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome, can be useful as a means of relieving symptoms, and provides the basis for the design of an innovative splint.

Sensitivity of three median-to-ulnar comparative tests in diagnosis of mild carpal tunnel syndrome.

We studied 193 hands of 113 patients referred for typical carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Ninety-five (49%) hands had normal median distal motor latency (< or = 4.2 ms) and normal or borderline sensory conduction velocity from digit 2 stimulation (> or = 45 m/s). In these cases we performed three median to ulnar comparative tests: (1) difference between median and ulnar distal motor latencies recorded from the second lumbrical and interossei muscles (2L-INT); (2) difference between median and ulnar sensory latencies from digit 4 stimulation (D4M-D4U); and (3) difference between median and ulnar mixed nerve latencies from palmar stimulation (PM-PU). The 2L-INT difference was > or = 0.6 ms in 10% of hands. PM-PU and D4M-D4U were > or = 0.5 ms in 56% and 77% of hands, respectively. The greater sensitivity of D4M-D4U might be explained by the funicular topography and consequent greater susceptibility to compression of the cutaneous fibers from the third interspace which, at the distal carpal tunnel, are clumped superficially in the anteroulnar portion of the median nerve just beneath the transverse ligament.

[Blood testosterone in cryptorchid newborn infants: does it have a prognostic significance?]. / La testosteronemia nel neonato criptorchide, ha significato prognostico?

Testosterone, LH, FSH, blood levels at birth were determined in 40 Italian true cryptorchid , 12 pseudo-cryptorchid and 71 healthy newborns. Testosterone concentrations were interpreted according to the localisation of the retained testicles. A greater incidence of spontaneous remission of the cryptorchidism was found in those subjects with: 1) testosterone plasma levels overlapping the neonatal range; 2) testicles placed in proximity to the external orifice of the inguinal tunnel. Follow-up of these infants up to 2 years of age will test the hypothesis.

Solute kinetics in hypertonic hemodiafiltration and standard hemodialysis.

Hemodiafiltration (HDF) is a new dialysis treatment that combines convective and diffusive forces. In order to assess the efficiency of a peculiar model of hypertonic HDF (H HDF), we studied eight uremic patients when they were undergoing five sessions of H HDF of 180 minutes duration and two sessions of standard hemodialysis (HD) of 270 minutes duration with a comparable blood (approximately 400 mL/min) and dialysate flow rate (approximately 520 mL/min). The plasma water clearances (Kw) of small [urea (U), creatinine (C), uric acid (UA), and phosphorus (P)] and middle molecules [netilmicin (N) and inulin (I)] were exceedingly higher in H HDF than in HD; however, because of the different treatment times, U and C removal (R) in HD overcame and UA and P R in HD equalized that in H HDF. The factor time was not sufficient to HD to compensate for the large difference in Kw in the case of I. Additional studies were performed in seven out of the eight patients after two sessions of H HDF and one session of HD. Two significantly higher rebounds were observed when comparing both treatments: for U after HD and for parathyroid hormone (PTH) after H HDF; however, PTH Cx/Cs ratios (ratios of the plasma water concentration of PTH at any postdialysis time to the plasma water concentration of PTH at the start of the run) were not different in both treatments, meaning that there was an increased PTH secretion in the early post H HDF hours in order to compensate for the larger PTH R with H HDF.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)