REHABILITATION OF CARPAL-TUNNEL SURGERY PATIENTS USING A SHORT SURGICAL INCISION AND AN EARLY PROGRAM OF PHYSICAL THERAPY

One goal of surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome is to return the patien t to work or full-time activities in the shortest possible period of t ime. The authors evaluated the effectiveness of two incisions, a short incision less than 2.5 cm and an incision greater than 2.5 cm, both c ombined with a program of active postoperative hand therapy in a group of 216 patients (293 releases). When compared to other techniques wit h or without active physical therapy, our combined program achieved as short a median return-to-work interval as any other method, both for workers' compensation patients (21 days) and for private/Medicare/welf are patients (10 days). The operating time averaged 7 minutes, and pos toperative complications were few. The findings suggest that early han d therapy is more important than the short incision for minimizing the interval For regaining normal function and for decreasing the time-lo ss cost.