title: Current diagnostics and treatment of the cubital tunnel syndrome in Austria.
abstract: According to the vote of the Austrian Society for Surgery of the Hand (ÖGH) an investigation to collect data on the current state of the treatment of cubital tunnel syndrome was initiated. Over one year a total of 875 patients with cubital tunnel syndrome were operated in Austria, this means an incidence of this nerve entrapment of 0.011%. Most of the operations were done by trauma surgeons (287; 33%). For diagnosis most of the centers rely on clinical symptoms, electroneurophysiology, and elbow X-ray. 40% of the institutions regard conservative therapy as useless and not indicated. If conservative treatment modalities are applied, physiotherapy (97%), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication (77%), and glucocorticoid injections (30%) are primarily used. In case of simple nerve entrapment most of the surgeons (72%) prefer simple nerve decompression. If there is additional pathology subcutaneous cubital nerve transposition is recommended (62%). Endoscopic techniques are only use by 3% of the surgeons. In the postoperative care, physiotherapy is favored in 51%, whereas 24% do not judge any postoperative care as beneficial. The three most often encountered complications were incomplete remission, scar contracture and hypertrophy, and postoperative bleeding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, St. Marien-Krankenhaus Berlin, Germany; Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité - Medical University of Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harder
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, St. Marien-Krankenhaus Berlin, Germany; Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité - Medical University of Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Diehm
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, St. Marien-Krankenhaus Berlin, Germany; Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité - Medical University of Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fassola
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, St. Marien-Krankenhaus Berlin, Germany; Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité - Medical University of Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Nesrin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al Khaled
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, St. Marien-Krankenhaus Berlin, Germany; Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité - Medical University of Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Dietrich
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Doll
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, St. Marien-Krankenhaus Berlin, Germany; Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité - Medical University of Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Dunda
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, St. Marien-Krankenhaus Berlin, Germany; Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité - Medical University of Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Björn Dirk
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Krapohl
keywords: cubital tunnel syndrome; peripheral nerve compression; ulnar nerve
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