Re: balloon carpal tunnel plasty

In Reply to: Re: balloon carpal tunnel plasty posted by walt on February 25, 2004 at 04:41:19:

: : Walt,

: : What is going to KEEP the carpal tunnel open after surgery? If it collapsed once, what stops it from happening again?? Did your information say what the Long Term stats were? It doesn't seem like this treatment is considering the reason that the CP was collapsed in the first place.

: : Mandi

: :
: : : Update from my earlier post... If you google "balloon carpal tunnel-plasty" you are likely to get several site references. Although still experimental, research info. shows good success. It apparently is similar to the single portal endoscopic technique but uses a balloon to stretch rather than cut the transverse carpal ligament. Definitely seems worth asking about if surgery is a consideration.

: Mandi,

: Don't claim to be an expert here so really don't know the answer. Info indicated it was performed on "over 200 patients in the last five years with excellent results." Article also listed various centers participating in the clinical trials which included the Philadelphia Hand Center and Loyola University Medical Center and three others. Again as an individual facing cts surgery I think it is an interesting possibility. I continue to search for more definitive info. I am going to take a shot and e-mail one of the sites mentioned in the last article I found.

: Walt

Hey Walt,
Good info you got for us...since it is so new, I couldn't find anything in my college database on it. Also I'm sure there are few long term studies yet. But it sounds very interesting and something that if I hadn't already had my surgery would have considerd.
My carpal tunnel was tight, small wrist, rsi, ect you do the math. So streching the ligament as opposed to cutting it would have been a good choice for me. But I do not regret my surgery, it has been successful so far and granted me alot of relief. But it's nice to have other choices! So keep us posted if you can get any more info, I know I would love to hear it. I'll keep looking too..
Kitty