“Can surgery be done for carpal tunnel?”

Results of carpal tunnel surgery are excellent if done for the right reasons.

See a hand specialist to be sure you have the right diagnosis first. While carpal tunnel is a relatively easy surgery, it won't help if they don't have the right diagnosis, what you describe may be a different condition.

It is important to always seek a medical evaluation by a licensed professional to see if you are a candidate for a Carpal Tunnel release. You also want to seek help sooner rather than later to prevent any further damage to the area.

To answer your main question, yes, surgery can be done for carpal tunnel. Typically, patients with carpal tunnel syndrome will complain of numbness and tingling in their thumb, index, and long fingers (and sometimes half the ring finger) and waking up at night time from their hand symptoms. Often in early cases, night time splinting with OTC splints can be very helpful. Often a nerve conduction/EMG test can confirm and determine the severity if splinting is not effective. In mild cases, a steroid injection can be administered. The worry in not seeking out a hand surgeon is that one can wait too long in obtaining the correct diagnosis, and atrophy can occur or worsen. Patients that present with carpal tunnel may often have associated trigger digits or tendonitis of their flexor tendons inhibiting them from closing their fist. Please consult a fellowship-trained hand surgeon given your description of symptoms. Surgery can be very successful in treating carpal tunnel.

If indeed you have carpal tunnel syndrome, yes, it is very treatable with surgery. The procedure is quite simple and takes about 10-15 minutes. That being said, you need to make certain that your diagnosis is carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome causes numbness and tingling in the hands, and not stiffness.

Yes, surgery will take the pressure off of your nerve in the carpal tunnel, which will relieve your symptoms. The surgery is under 10 minutes in an outpatient setting under local anesthesia with mild sedation.

Christopher A. Zahiri, M.D.

Surgery does work well for carpal tunnel syndrome with very high success rates. Other treatment options include bracing and a cortisone shot, however surgery is most definitive.

Harrison Solomon, M.D.
Montgomery Orthopaedics
A Division of the
Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics