Question:
In Table 16, “Upper Extremity Impairments Due to Entrapment Neuropathy” (4th ed., 57), what do “mild,” “moderate,” and “severe” mean? These degrees of severity are not defined in the table or text.
Answer:
Table 16 provides the approximate percentages that would be derived by calculating the impairment due to peripheral nerve injury by using Table 15, “Maximum Upper Extremity Impairments Due to Unilateral Sensory or Motor Deficits or Combined Deficits of the Major Peripheral Nerves,” to derive the maximum impairment of the nerve and then multiplying by a severity multiplier for loss of sensation and/or pain (Table 11) and/or loss of strength (Table 12). The terms “mild,” “moderate,” and “severe” do not denote the degree of subjective complaints, nor the degree of conduction delay on electrodiagnostic studies.
Severe nerve entrapment is almost never seen. The “severe” column in Table...
