A Long-Term Follow Up Study of Prognostic Factors after Carpal Tunnel Release

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the factor influencing the improvement of symptoms and change of electrophysiologic findings of patients after carpal tunnel release. METHOD: We examined 16 patients (27 hands) who underwent carpal tunnel release operation after diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome by the electrodiagnostic study from March 2000 to February 2001. Nerve conduction tests and visual analogue scale were performed pre-operateively and 1 month and 3 years post-operatively. We also performed a correlation study to measure the improvements of symptoms with the patient's age, duration of symptoms, and severity of works. RESULTS: The improvement of visual analogue scale had no correlation with the age, severity of work and visual analogue scale at pre-operation. However, there was significant relationship between the improvement of visual analogue scale and duration of symptom. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the benifits of the carpal tunnel release operation were influenced by the patient's duration of the symptoms. The longer the symptoms were experienced, the improvements of the symptoms were reduced.