Carpal tunnel release under local anesthesia: Evaluation of the outpatient procedure

Assessing the complications and effectiveness of open carpal tunnel release in a tertiary care centre in a developing country

“…The standard open decompression procedure for carpal tunnel syndrome proved effective with a low complication incidence (6%); this tallied with findings in some studies, 7 although, simultaneously bearing a better efficacy to others conducted. 8 In addition our study drew similarities in the nature of the presenting complications with others but did not show a number of common complications which are associated with the respective procedure.…”

“…A recurrence frequency of 0.8% in our study can be correlated to the lower limit value of this referenced range. Our study did not show a number of complications that are commonly attributed to surgical decompression of the median nerve for instance neuroma formation 7,12 and also hypertrophic scar formation. 8,13 An interesting deduction arising from the study was the aberrant arterial branch of the radial artery sourcing as the problem of persistent post-operative haemorrhage.…”

“…Pain due to reflex sympathetic dystrophy was also encountered by Lichtman 7 and infections too have been reported by Kuschner. 9 Badger 2 reported the nature of infections after surgical decompression to be superficial, similar, to the findings here.…”

“…4,5 However, the procedure is not devoid of complications as studies report. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] The deficiency of the medical literature to quantitatively depict symptom and functional improvement after open decompression in developing countries was the basis of the study. The aim was to assess the effectiveness of the open carpal tunnel release procedure with the Boston…”

Blocks at the wrist provide effective anesthesia for carpal tunnel release

“…Although general anesthesia is still often used for patients undergoing distal upper extremity surgeries, local infiltration either alone [1][2][3] or combined with sedation, 4 iv regional anesthesia, 5 brachial plexus blocks, [6][7][8] and distal blocks at the wrist 9 also seem to be indicated. For limited procedures such as endoscopic carpal tunnel release, which are mostly performed on an outpatient basis and sometimes even as an office procedure, it seems that distal blocks at the wrist should be especially appropriate.…”