Arthroscopic resection of wrist ganglia

Abstract

The arthroscopic resection of synovial cysts of the wrist is a simple technique which is comfortable for the patient. We report on a series of 96 patients with dorsal synovial cysts (75 women, 21 men). All patients had undergone preliminary treatment which had been unsuccessful. We operated on 32 patients with a volar cyst (27 women, five men). All the patients were operated on as outpatients under local regional anaesthesia. For the dorsal cysts, after having precisely located the cyst, it is then resected after having inserted a shaver directly through the wall of the cyst starting with the capsule. For the volar cysts the arthroscope was inserted through a 3-4 portal and the shaver was inserted through a 1-2 radiocarpal portal. In all cases, there was no immobilisation and a range of motion was started the same day. For the dorsal cysts, our average follow-up was 34 months (range 12-46 months). There were no complications. We had four recurrences. For the palmar cysts, our average follow-up was 26 months (range 12-39 months). There have been no recurrences to date.