Recovery time post open release for musicians
16 May 2025 - 11:26am
Hi! I’m a professional pianist who has been advised to have bilateral open release surgery by my orthopedic surgeon. I am struggling to find any data on recovery time for something that requires the level of fine motor skills here —the surgeon and hand therapist I have been seeing are sticking to the line of “everybody recovers differently” which is fair enough. Is there any data on a) when it’s best to start a return to playing program and b) a recovery range for full return to work? The area of music I’m in requires playing for 40 hours a week for stretches of time, and I am struggling to find data on full return in terms of dexterity but also stamina after severe compression and surgery. Thankyou for any info you may have!
Very hard to make any firm predictions My first thought would be - do you really need surgery? Has any other treatment been tried and has the diagnosis been made as concrete as possible with nerve studies and/or ultrasound imaging. JB