Comparison of Carpal Tunnel Release with Three Different Techniques

Carpal tunnel syndrome is one of the most common compression neuropathies in the upper limb and requires surgery if conservative treatment fails. This article compares the result of regular open incision midpalmar mini incision and endoscopic technique in carpal tunnel release. This is a clinical trial study on 53 patients (5 males 48 females) within one year who were surgical candidates. The surgery was done by arthroscopy with regular open incision or with mid palmar small incision. The clinical outcomes were evaluated one week 4 weeks and 4 months post surgery. Relief and satisfaction were better in the first month in the arthroscopic and mini-incision group. All 3 techniques had similar outcomes after 4 months. In 4-months follow-up night pain relief followed by parasthesia relief were the ones with the best improvement. Weakness was the symptom with the least improvement. Longer incision cases were associated with more delay to return to work. Carpal tunnel release with endoscopic and mini incision techniques have a better early satisfaction rates compared to regular open incision but no difference is seen between the two groups after four months.