NERVE ENTRAPMENT AT THE ELBOW IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS*

Although there was some delay in the posterior interosseous branch of the radial nerve con-duction time in six of the 152 rheumatoid elbows, in no case were there clinical signs attributable to entrapment of this nerve. Some delay in ulnar nerve conduction was recorded in 27 of the 152 elbows; this was marked in 12. These patients tended to be older and to have more severe disease of the elbow. ENTRAPMENT neuropathies associated with local joint changes in rheumatoid arthritis have been described at the wrist, neck, knee and elbow (Staal, 1970). Since one of us (B.M.A., 1959) described nerve entrapment at the rheumatoid elbow, six further case reports of posterior interosseous entrapment neuropathy have been recorded (Pallis and Scott, 1965; Marmor et al, 1967; Chang et al., 1972; and Millender et al., 1973), and De Andrade (1965) has clearly demonstrated ulnar entrapment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of such entrapment neuropathies at the elbow. MATERIAL One hundred and forty-two patients with definite or classical rheumatoid arthriti