Post-operative outcome of surgical decompression for carpal tunnel syndrome

Abstract EN

Introduction : carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common compressive neuropathy in the body, which results from median nerve entrapment within the carpal tunnel.

carpal tunnel syndrome main features include hand pain and paresthesia, which affect the activity of daily living.

surgical treatment is reserved for severe compression and for those who did not respond to conservative modalities.

longstanding compression of the median nerve may result in irreversible neuropathy, explaining the persistence of symptoms after surgical release.

method : this prospective observational repeated measure design study was conducted at royal rehabilitation center at king Hussein medical center in January-December 2019.

patients who underwent surgical release of CTS were evaluated by Boston carpal tunnel questionnaire (BCTQ) before the surgery and three months after to measure the outcome of surgery.

results : the outcomes of 176 patients (138 females, 38 males), who were surgically treated for CTS, showed significant improvements at three months after surgery in all items of both elements of BCTQ : symptom severity score (SSS) and functional severity score (FSS).

conclusions : surgical release of CTS is an effective intervention to relieve patients' symptoms and improve their function.

the improvement in postoperative Boston scores reflected this result when compared to presurgery values.

all age groups demonstrated significant improvement in postoperative scores.

memorable, patients older than 40 years showed lower scores than younger age group.

CTS- night symptoms improvement was more significant than daytime symptoms.