Patient Characteristics in Ulnar Nerve Compression at the Elbow at a Tertiary Referral Hospital and Predictive Factors for Outcomes of Simple Decompression versus Subcutaneous Transposition of the Ulnar Nerve

Table 3

Background data for 202 cases with surgery for ulnar nerve compression at the elbow.

		Simple decompression			Primary anterior subcutaneous transposition			Secondary anterior subcutaneous transposition			value
		Mean (SD)	Percentage	Count (n)	Mean (SD)	Percentage	Count (n)	Mean (SD)	Percentage	Count (n)
Age at the time of the first surgery		51 (13)			48 (14)			44 (14)			0.01
Gender	Female		59	67		64	36		72	23	0.38
Smoking	Smoker		29	33		34	19		34	11	0.76
Neck problems	Yes		26	30		27	15		16	5	0.43
Shoulder problems	Yes		12	14		21	12		22	7	0.21
Other neuropathy in the same arm	Yes		56	64		55	31		63	20	0.78
Other neuropathy in the opposite arm	Yes		38	43		54	30		53	17	0.08
Diabetes	Yes		12	13		13	7		20	6	0.49
Electrophysiology for ulnar nerve affection at the elbow level	Yes		61	69		45	25		56	18	0.09^a
	No		28	32		45	25		31	10
	Not performed		10	11		11	6		13	4
MRI for signs of nerve root affection	Yes		15	17		14	8		12	4	0.46^a
	No		26	30		43	24		41	13
	Not performed		59	67		43	24		47	15

Differences were evaluated with chi-square statistics, except for “age at the time of the first surgery,” where one-way ANOVA was used. Statistically significant differences are marked in bold. Values are mean (SD), percentage, and count (n). MRI: magnetic resonance imaging. ^a values for electrophysiology and MRI are based on the examinations evaluating affection of the ulnar nerve and spinal nerve root(s), respectively.