Prevalence and associated factors of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) among medical laboratory staff at King Saud University Hospitals, KSA

Background and Objectives: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a group of symptoms resulting from local compression of the median nerve at the wrist leading to its subsequent functional impairment and local ischemia of the nerve. Our objective was to determine the prevalence and commonly reported symptoms of CTS in the laboratory workers of King Saud University (KSU) hospitals and to identify the associated variables with CTS.

Methods: This was a quantitative observational cross-sectional study which was conducted in KSU hospitals’ laboratories with a total of 225 participants by using a standardized questionnaire known as “ Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ). Data Analysis was carried out by IBM SPSS Statistics software version 21.0.

Results: Out of the 225 participants, 57 were found to be severely symptomatic with a prevalence of 25.3%. Among the severely affected participants, females were more than males (58% > 42%) and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.045). Technicians affected (91.2%) were more than attendants (8.8%) and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.042).

Conclusion: The prevalence of Carpal tunnel syndrome in KSU hospitals’ medical laboratory staff (25.3%) was close to what was found in literature (21.5%). So laboratory workers are at risk of developing CTS, especially females and technicians with the dominant hand most likely to be affected.