Possible connections between carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and exposure to vibrating handheld tools, repetitive wrist movements, and heavy manual work were examined in a case-referent study. 43 ment of the conduction velocities in the median nerve at the wrist level. Patients on whom the transverse carpal ligament was divided because ofpost-traumatic nerve compression were excluded from the study. The remaining 38 patients constituted the cases in this study.For each case, two referents were drawn from among other surgical cases (hospital referents) and two further referents from the general population register and the telephone directory, respectively (population referents). All referents were matched for sex (only men were included), age (± 3 years), and the hospital referents also for year of operation (±3 years).The hospital referents were collected from the medical register at the Southern Hospital. During 1975-80, the catchment areas for the surgical department of this hospital and the clinic of hand surgery of Sabbatsberg Hospital were similar. For each case, one referent had been operated on for gall bladder disease and the other for varicous veins in the legs.The population referents were living in the catchment area of the clinic of hand surgery of the Sabbatsberg Hospital. A new population referent was drawn if the first could not be interviewed because of death, severe mental retardation, or admission to a
An analysis of a military database of about 36,000 tone audiograms from male Swedish conscripts aged 18 to 19 and recorded from 1969 to 1977 demonstrates a successively decreasing prevalence of hearing loss during this period. This might reflect improved therapy during the 1950s and 1960s of ear disorders causing hearing loss in small children. If observations in other studies on a reverse trend during the 1980s are confirmed, they indicate, together with the present study, that around 1980 young people began to be harmfully exposed to an environmental factor causing hearing loss. If this is the case, the causative factor would probably be non-occupational exposure to electronically amplified sounds from loudspeakers and headphones.
During 1985 at Sabbatsberg Hospital in Stockholm, carpal tunnel decompression was done for 50 men (58 hands) with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). In 1988 2.5 to 3 years after the operations, a questionnaire about their present health was answered by 43 men (50 hands). In 10/17 (59%) hands exposed to vibrations and 26/33 (79%) not exposed, carpal tunnel decompression had resulted in no recurrence of neurological symptoms at follow up. Preoperative signs of neurophysiological dysfunction of the ulnar nerve, which might indicate a more widespread neuropathy, did not correlate with poor postoperative function of the median nerve. We recommend that patients with carpal tunnel syndrome should be operated on, whether or not they have been exposed to vibration.
An inquiry about sleep habits and sleep disturbances revealed a significantly higher prevalence of insomnia in a solvent-exposed group than in a comparable group that had no occupational exposure to organic solvents. In the solvent-exposed group was also registered an increased consumption of hypnotics, and a significant increase occurred in the number of individuals who had consulted physicians because of sleep disorders. The results indicate that solvent exposure could induce sleep disturbance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.