title: Prevalence and severity of carpal tunnel syndrome in women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is entrapment of median nerve in carpal tunnel of the wrist. The prevalence of CTS related to pregnancy and non-pregnancy is unknown in some countries such as Iran. The main aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of CTS in women of Boyerahmad Township located in South-West part of Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional descriptive analytic study was done since February 2010 to January 2011 in Obstetrics and Gynecology clinics in 2656 non-pregnant and 1508 pregnant women. The women that had clinical symptoms of CTS performed standard electro diagnostic techniques for rule in or rule out of CTS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of CTS in pregnant and non- pregnant women was 3.4 and 2 .3 percent respectively. The prevalence of CTS in all women was 2.7%. Overall, 51 pregnant women had CTS that 59.4% had mild, 18.8 % had moderate and 21.9% had severe CTS. Sixty-one non-pregnant women had CTS that 73.6 %had mild, 20.8 %t had moderate and 5.6 % had severe CTS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the prevalence of CTS in Iranian pregnancy is higher than non-pregnancy women conservative treatment is safe and more effective.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Physical Medicine &Rehabilitation, Yasouj University of Medical Sciences, Yasouj, Iran.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yazdanpanah
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aramesh
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mousavizadeh
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ghaffari
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Khosravi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khademi
keywords: Carpal tunnel syndrome; Iran; Pregnancy; Prevalence; Severity; Women