Background: Carpal tunnel surgery is the most common surgical procedure performed on the hand. Although complications are rare, recurrent or persistent carpal tunnel syndrome can be a significant problem after primary decompression. Various procedures have been described for the treatment of these patients including repeat decompression and hypothenar fat pad transposition. The purpose of this study is to compare the outcomes of patients undergoing revision carpal tunnel decompression with and without hypothenar fat pad transposition.
Methods: We performed a retrospective review of all patients undergoing revision carpal tunnel surgery at our institution between 2002 and 2014. Identified patients were contacted by telephone. A Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) was administered to all participants.
Results: Seventy-six patients underwent revision carpal tunnel surgery over the study period. Twenty-nine of 45 potential participants provided a survey response (64.9%) representing a total of 33 carpal tunnel revision surgeries. Seventeen hands underwent repeat decompression alone, and 16 hands underwent repeat decompression with hypothenar fat pad transposition. A trend toward improved overall BCTQ score was noted for patients undergoing decompression alone; however, no significant difference was determined for total survey score by procedure type. Similarly, total symptom severity and functional scores were not statistically significant between groups; however, a trend toward significance for improved symptom severity score was observed in patients undergoing decompression alone.
Conclusions: Our results reveal no difference in self-reported symptom severity and functional scores between patients undergoing revision carpal tunnel surgery with repeat decompression alone or decompression with fat pad transposition.
Keywords: carpal tunnel; hypothenar fat pad transposition; revision carpal tunnel.