Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!!! Hope everyone is having a great Sunday! I recently found out I have carpal tunnel...I was actually a little surprised about it. I thought all the symptoms I was having was Chiari related, but after the EMG, my NS informed me that I have it. Here's my question: I live about 2 hours from my NS. He wants to do the surgery to "fix" the carpal tunnel, but there's also a doctor in my hometown that I trust enough to do it. This doctor here has done both of my husbands hands & both my moms hands & both of her shoulders, so I feel very comfortable with him doing mine. The only question i have is since I have Chiari, is the surgery going to be different or are there things my NS would know to look out for or be on guard for & this other ortho doctor wouldn't know? I'd rather just have it done here & save myself & my family multiple trips to Pittsburgh if nothing would be any different. Obviously if its something that my NS would need to do, that's the obvious route we're going to go, I was just wondering if anything would be different or needed to be watched for?
I have never heard of a NS doing carpal tunnel surgery. I am a nurse in an outpatient surgery center and CTR (carpal tunnel repair) is one of the simplest surgery done. You do not even need to have general anesthesia. Most peolple only have mild sedation. I would trust a hand surgeon far more than a NS with this procedure. The sugery takes about 2o minutes and the patients usually go home in a half an hour. I would stay in my hometown with the sugeon I knew. I cannot see any relationship with your Chiari.