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. 2025 Mar 10;17(3):e80350.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.80350. eCollection 2025 Mar.

The Association Between Bariatric Surgery and Surgical Outcomes Following Open Carpal Tunnel Release

Nicholas B Pohl  1 , Ryan Garemani  1 , Evan Derector  1 , Rick Tosti  2 , Pedro K Beredjiklian  1 , Daniel J Fletcher  1
Affiliations

The Association Between Bariatric Surgery and Surgical Outcomes Following Open Carpal Tunnel Release

Nicholas B Pohl et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Introduction: While previous research has evaluated surgical outcomes following open carpal tunnel release (CTR) in obese patients, there is relatively minimal literature regarding outcomes in patients who have previously undergone bariatric surgery prior to open CTR. The purpose of this study is to compare the postoperative functional and surgical outcomes in patients who undergo open CTR with or without a history of bariatric surgery.

Methods: Adult patients with a documented history of bariatric surgery undergoing open CTR surgery between 2015 and 2022 were propensity matched with control open CTR patients with no bariatric surgery history. Patients were matched based on age, sex, race, body mass index (BMI), Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), smoking status, and history of diabetes mellitus. A retrospective chart review was performed to collect demographic data, preoperative nerve conduction studies (NCS), surgical characteristics, complications, further treatment, and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).

Results: A total of 42 patients having undergone bariatric surgery prior to CTR and 84 control CTR patients with no history of bariatric surgery were included. More bariatric surgery patients demonstrated mild carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) on preoperative NCS. The overall minor complication rate was similar between patients with and without bariatric surgery history. There were no differences in postoperative Physical Component score (PCS-12) and Mental Component score (MCS-12) as well as no change in PCS-12 scores (ΔPCS-12) between preoperative and one-year postoperative scores.

Conclusions: Patients with a history of bariatric surgery tended to have a larger benefit from open CTR in comparison to the control cohort; however, this was not statistically significant. The current literature regarding CTR outcomes as it relates to obesity and bariatric surgery is limited, and therefore, the association should be explored further with larger patient cohorts.

Keywords: bariatric surgery; carpal tunnel release; obesity; surgical outcomes; carpal tunnel syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

Human subjects: Consent for treatment and open access publication was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Thomas Jefferson University Institutional Review Board issued approval 2023-2799. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: Rick Tosti declare(s) Paid speaker/presenter from Axogen. Rick Tosti declare(s) Paid speaker/presenter from Mission Surgical. Rick Tosti declare(s) Paid speaker/presenter from TriMed. Pedro K. Beredjiklian declare(s) stock/stock options from CrossCurrent Business Analytics. Pedro K. Beredjiklian declare(s) stock/stock options from Options Dimension Orthotics LLC. Pedro K. Beredjiklian declare(s) stock/stock options from Matador, Inc. Pedro K. Beredjiklian declare(s) stock/stock options from Wright Medical Technology, Inc. Pedro K. Beredjiklian declare(s) royalties from Saunders/Mosby-Elsevier . Pedro K. Beredjiklian declare(s) royalties from Theme. Pedro K. Beredjiklian declare(s) non-financial support from Journal of Hand Surgery (American Volume). Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

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