Surgical management of carpal tunnel syndrome in elderly people, is it satisfactory
?
Introduction:
The steps of treating the carpal tunnel syndrome are conservative treatment followed by surgical options either standard open surgery or endoscopic maneuver if the conservative treatment failed or neurological deficit appeared. Nevertheless, the surgical intervention outcome in elderly is questionable. Moreover, elderly people are less convinced with the outcome of the surgical option. Explaining the results to elderly patients should be done before the surgery.
Aim of the study:
To assess the carpal tunnel release in the elderly patients regarding pain relief and the functional outcome.
Patients and method:
A prospective study in the neurosurgery clinic in Sohag university hospital for the elderly patients with carpal tunnel entrapment. Detailed medical history was taken. The diagnosis was confirmed by the electrophysiological studies. Open surgical release was done for all patients who did not respond to conservative treatment or who had a neurological deficit from the start. They were followed for six months postoperatively.
Results:
Twenty-four elderly patients were involved in this study. They were 17 females (70.8%) and 7 males (29.2%) , all of them showed marked improvement after the open surgical release regarding pain and functional outcome.
Conclusion:
Open surgical release would be the best management option for the carpal tunnel syndrome in the elderly patients who are not responding to the conservative treatment, although some of them were not satisfied with the surgical release.
Keywords:
carpal tunnel- elderly people – open release – entrapment neuropathy – pain relief