Work comp and carpal tunnel surgery

If you feel your case of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is caused by work, then you need to learn the facts from a ground-breaking study concerning workers compensation (work comp) and carpal tunnel surgery.

The study:

Although a great deal of CONTROVERSY exists regarding CTS and work comp issues and whether it is caused by work? Carpal tunnel syndrome is one of the most "reported work-related" injuries and it's a leading cause of work disability.

Researchers Yawn and Kurland at Emory University studied patients from a single community who had CARPAL TUNNEL SURGERY (AKA carpal tunnel release-(CTR).

They compared the duration of symptoms and the severity of nerve damage before the person had surgery among two groups.

A group that WAS getting worker's compensation and a group that WAS NOT getting worker's compensation.

The study looked at 131 patients who had a total of 187 carpal tunnel releases done by one surgeon (Obviously some patients had 2 CTR's, one for each hand).

The results:

The group that was not getting workers comp endured the symptoms longer than the workers comp group before they had the surgery done.

My opinion is that if you know you are going to have to pay for a relatively expensive surgery (about $7,900) out of your own pocket (even with insurance and co-pays) then you might be willing to try conservative or NON-SURGICAL TREATMENTS a little longer, (which are a lot less expensive!)

You might be thinking....well, maybe the workers comp group had more severe carpal tunnel cases, so they needed to have surgery sooner?

However, the opposite was true.

A smaller proportion of workers comp patients had severe CTS cases(determined by EMG/ NCS tests). Also, the workers comp group had a larger portion of "borderline" carpal tunnel syndrome cases (i.e. borderline EMG/NCS findings...in other words right on the edge of being normal)

This carpal tunnel surgery and work comp study concluded that people with "work-related" CTS appeared to receive carpal tunnel surgery for CTS earlier than people whose CTS was not covered by workers comp.

Also, regarding work comp and carpal tunnel surgery, there has been several studies showing how work comp can effect surgery outcomes.

See Florida's interesting Work Comp Laws
Florida Work Comp Laws Work Comp Claims

CTS Explanation
Carpal tunnel syndrome causes
CTS surgery
Recovery from surgery
Recovery time from surgery
Recovery at home
CTS wrist braces

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