French trends in carpal tunnel surgery: An online survey of members of the French Society for Surgery of the Hand

Abstract

Several surgical and anesthesia techniques are used in carpal tunnel surgery. The practices of members of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgery were recently published and compared. Because of the great difference in these practices, we investigated the practices of the members of the French Society for Surgery of the Hand and how they would change. An online survey including 14 systematic and 12 conditional questions was sent by email to all 685 surgeons who were members of the French Society for Surgery of the Hand in July 2019. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The survey was completed by 129 members (19%). The open approach was used by 56% of the surgeons (8% by traditional open technique, 48% by minimally invasive open technique), endoscopic techniques by 40% and ultrasound-guided techniques by 4%. Most surgeons used regional anesthesia (69%) or local anesthesia (25%). Half of the surgeons (50%) would consider changing their surgical technique. Sixty-one percent were interested in ultrasound-guided techniques and 34% in endoscopic techniques. Almost half the surgeons (48%) would consider changing their anesthesia technique and 97% were interested in local anesthesia. Our study showed that the open approach and regional anesthesia were the most frequently used techniques but that an increase in endoscopic and ultrasound-guided techniques as well as local anesthesia techniques was likely. Level of evidenceEconomic and decision analysis V.