LONGITUDINAL MEDIAN NERVE CONDUCTION STUDIES AFTER ENDOSCOPIC CARPAL TUNNEL RELEASE

Forty hands of 36 patients who had undergone endoscopic carpal tunnel release (ECTR), utilising Chow's two-portal technique after being diagnosed with idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome, were subjected to longitudinal median nerve conduction studies. The distal motor latency (DML) was examined pre-operatively on all the hands, which were re-examined at the post-operative 1st, 3rd, 6th and 12th months. Rapid improvement of DML was observed post-operatively in the first three months. These improvements patterns are not much different from those after open carpal tunnel release (OCTR) reported in the literatures. We consider that the data reported herein can be used as standards of DML course after ECTR.