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SJ McCabe, WC Breidenbach, HA Herrand. The once-twice test for evaluation of the completely anesthetic digit. Can J Plast Surg 1998;6(1):21-22. A test to aid in the evaluation of the completely anesthetic digit – the once-twice test – is described. This rapid, easily performed clinical test can help identify patients with anesthesia of the digits of nonphysiological origin.

SJ McCabe. The appearance of the median nerve during carpal tunnel release: Reliability of the surgeon's grading of the degree of compression. Can J Plast Surg 1994;2(4): 169-170. The reliability of intraoperative grading of the degree of compression of the median nerve during carpal tunnel release has never been tested, even though the appearance of the median nerve at the time of release may contain valuable information regarding the degree of compression. This study used a survey design with high-quality colour photographs of the median nerve at the time of carpal tunnel release to test the reliability of 30 surgeons grading the degree of compression. An important degree of disagreement was found in 11 % of the scores. The calculated reliability of 0.68, while not high enough to make individual treatment decisions based on the appearance of the nerve, is high enough to group patients for the purposes of clinical research.

K Joughin, SJ McCabe. Patient preference for the management of trigger digit. Can J Plast Surg 1993;1(3):141-142. Steroid injection and surgery are both accepted treatment options for trigger digit. The objective of this study was to determine which modality patients would prefer when given a choice of treatments, the strength of their preference and factors that may influence their preference. A probability trade-off technique was used in 151 subjects. On average, subjects selected injection over surgery and would do so with a probability of success by injection as low as 57%. If the probability of cure by injection was less than 57%, surgery would be the preferred method of treatment, on average. A bimodal distribution of patient preference showed that some patients may strongly prefer either surgery or injection, with many patients preferring surgery even with a high expected cure rate of the first injection. Age, gender and previous experience with injections or surgery did not correlate with preference. Patients with trigger digits should be presented with unbiased information about treatment and be allowed to take part in the selection of the type of treatment they receive.