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Ulnar nerve entrapment at elbow in obstructive sleep apnea patients: a randomized controlled trial

  • Sleep Breathing Physiology and Disorders • Original Article
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Abstract

Purpose

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent disease. For diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, OSA has been divided into several subgroups. Positional OSA (POSA), the most frequent subgroup (56 %), is described as overall apnea hypopnea index (AHI) ≥5 and supine AHI at least twice as high when compared to non-supine AHI. We aimed to investigate the frequency of ulnar nerve entrapment neuropathy at the elbow (UNEE) in OSA patients without clinical signs and symptoms of ulnar neuropathy and intended to find if sleeping position in OSA had an impact on UNEE development.

Methods

Fifty POSA, 48 non-positional OSA (NPOSA) patients, and 45 healthy controls without diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, rheumatic diseases, and cervical radiculopathy underwent nerve conduction studies.

Results

We found that UNEE was highly frequent in OSA patients (42.9 %) and significantly more frequent in moderate to severe POSA patients than mild POSA patients (65.4 vs. 33.3 %, p < 0.05). Furthermore, when compared to non-positional ones, UNEE was significantly more frequent in moderate to severe POSA patients (65.4 vs. 36.4 %, p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Our results showed that the severity of OSA in positional patients was correlated with increased frequency of UNEE. OSA patients should be informed about the predisposition of UNEE and questioned for the symptoms in periodical controls. POSA patients should be alerted about the additional effect of sleeping position on UNEE and the necessity of OSA treatment should be emphasized.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Hande Alibaş for her tolerant support on statistical analysis; Mrs. Sercan Davulcu for her ambitious technical assistance in Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory; and Mrs. Birsen Tarım, Mrs. Olga Bahar Güler, and Mr. Ercan Yavuz for their kind support in the Sleep Laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Süreyyapaşa Chest Diseases and Thorax Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Süreyyapaşa Göğüs Hastalıkları ve Cerrahisi Eğitim ve Araştrma Hastanesi, Başıbüyük, 34854, Maltepe, İstanbul, Turkey

    Özgür Bilgin Topçuoğlu

  2. Department of Neurology, Marmara University School of Medicine, Marmara Üniversitesi Pendik Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Fevzi Çakmak Mahallesi, Mimar Sinan Caddesi, No:41, Üstkaynarca, Pendik, İstanbul, Turkey

    Özgür Bilgin Topçuoğlu & Kayıhan Uluç

  3. Department of Chest Diseases, Süreyyapaşa Chest Diseases and Thorax Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Süreyyapaşa Göğüs Hastalıkları ve Cerrahisi Eğitim ve Araştrma Hastanesi, Başıbüyük, 34854, Maltepe, İstanbul, Turkey

    Özlem Oruç, Gülgün Çetintaş Afşar & Sema Saraç

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  1. Özgür Bilgin Topçuoğlu
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  2. Özlem Oruç
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Correspondence to Özgür Bilgin Topçuoğlu.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Bilgin Topçuoğlu, Ö., Oruç, Ö., Afşar, G.Ç. et al. Ulnar nerve entrapment at elbow in obstructive sleep apnea patients: a randomized controlled trial. Sleep Breath 21, 45–51 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-016-1360-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-016-1360-x

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