Background: Electrodiagnostic studies (EDX) serve a prominent role in the diagnostic workup of cubital tunnel syndrome (CBTS), but their reported sensitivity varies widely. The goals of our study were to determine the sensitivity of EDX in a cohort of patients who responded well to surgical cubital tunnel release (CBTR), and whether the implementation of the Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) criteria improves the sensitivity. Methods: We identified 118 elbows with clinical CBTS who had preoperative EDX and underwent CBTR. The EDX diagnoses were CBTS, ulnar neuropathy (UN), and normal ulnar nerves. We divided the 118 elbows into those that received above-elbow stimulation (XE group) and those that did not (non-XE group). We calculated the sensitivities for all groups and reinterpreted the results according to the AANEM guidelines. Results: Cubital tunnel release provided significant relief in 93.6% of the elbows. Based on the EDX reports, 11% patients had clear CBTS, 23% had UN, and 66% showed no UN. The sensitivities were 11.7% for CBTS and 34.2% for any UN. In the XE group, the sensitivity of the EDX reports for CBTS and UN climbed to 33.3% and 58.3%, respectively. When we calculated the across-elbow motor nerve conduction velocity, the sensitivity for CBTS and UN was 87.5% and 100%, respectively. The XE and non-XE groups showed no difference except for sex, bilaterality, concomitant carpal tunnel release, and obesity ( P < .05). Conclusion: Implementing AANEM guidelines results in significant improvement in correlation of clinical and electrodiagnostic findings of CBTS.
There has been a shift in US health care to a system that emphasizes value. Patient-reported outcomes have become a critical component of that valuation. A 5-year quality improvement project at the community private practice level was undertaken to assess the authors' delivery of care and practice processes for shoulder surgery as compared with established standards. QuickDASH questionnaires were collected from 1304 consecutive shoulder surgery patients, and data were collected at 4 time points. Mean QuickDASH scores for each procedure and scores assessing biceps tenodesis, distal clavicle excision, workers' compensation status, and sex were analyzed for statistical significance. Rotator cuff repair patients who also underwent biceps tenodesis had statistically significant worse function preoperatively and at 3 and 6 months postoperatively but not at 1 year postoperatively (
P
<.05). Rotator cuff repair patients undergoing concomitant distal clavicle excision had statistically significantly higher pre-operative scores (
P
<.01). Male shoulder arthroplasty patients had statistically significant higher preoperative scores (
P
<.02). Non–workers' compensation patients had statistically significant higher scores at 1 year (
P
<.05), whereas workers' compensation patients were statistically significantly younger (
P
<.01). Maximum changes in scores that met minimal clinically important differences occurred between surgery and 6 months postoperatively in all procedures. Quality outcome studies can be performed in private practice by a single surgeon and yield helpful results that lead to quality improvement through practice and delivery of care processes. [
Orthopedics
. 2020;43(5):e383–e388.]
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