Carpal tunnel operation
I was given a splint to wear in March and for the first few weeks it was fine but after that the pain returned. I have decided to go ahead with the operation and I was wondering what the next step would be?
I have decided that I would like to go ahead with the surgery. I wait to hear from you. Thanks for the quick response.
There is a space for surgery in Herne Bay on 23rd July - does that work for you?
Hi Dr Bland, July 23rd sounds ok for surgery in Herne Bay. How long do you think l will be off work l am a carer in the community? Thank you.
If that involves a fair amount of lifting patients I would reckon on 4-6 weeks off. I've booked you in for that date and will send out an appointment letter in the post. There will be a pre-operative assessment before surgery - all the dates and times will be in one letter JB
We can arrange surgery for you. You might also think abut joining the INDICATE trial which would randomly allocate you to either local steroid injection or surgery as you would be an ideal candidate for this. We genuinely do not know which is the best treatment overall for moderately severe CTS like yours and this study is an attempt to find out. Half of the patients are allocated to surgery and half to injection and we aim to follow them up for a year and compare results. I'm sure we discussed this when we saw you but you can sum up the factors involved as:
Injection - Safer, more convenient, less likely to be permanent (but can last a surprisingly long time in some patients)
Surgery - Riskier, less convenient, usually a permanent solution as long it goes well.
If randomised to injection we would then probably operate on it if and when the problem recurs. JB