The Relationship between Obesity and the Diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Abstract

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most commonly observed neuropathy in the general population, resulting from a compression of the median nerve at the level of the carpal tunnel. We performed a case-control study including 83 patients (20 men and 63 women) with electrodiagnostic evidence of CTS cases and 82 control subjects (27 men and 55 women) at Cheng-Ching Hospital from April to October of 2003. All patients were categorized by their body mass index (BMT) and body fat. The CTS group was classified according to the severity of nerve conduction studies. There was significant difference iii the average BMI between patients of the CTS group arid control group (26.17±4.24 vs. 24.56±3.57; p＜0.01). Obese patients (BMI≥27) developed CTS more often than normal groups (BMI＜24) (28/45 vs. 26I66 p＜0.01). The average body fat in the CTS group was 34.59±8.62, significantly different from the control group (30.88±9.10; p＜0.01). Our study revealed that the presence of CTS was associated with increasing BMI and body fat. We concluded that obesity was a strong independent risk factor in developing carpal tunnel syndrome.