Background: The purpose of this study was to compare Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Upper Extremity (UE) and PROMIS Pain Interference (PI) scores before and after carpal tunnel release (CTR) between patients who underwent preoperative electrodiagnostic studies (EDS) and those who did not. Methods: This study was performed retrospectively. A total of 84 patients who underwent an endoscopic or open CTR in 2022 were retrospectively identified and divided based on those who did (n = 42) and did not (n = 42) receive preoperative EDS prior to CTR. Patients who did not receive EDS underwent preoperative CTS-6 or ultrasound. Results: No significant differences were found in pre- and postoperative PROMIS PI and UE scores between the EDS and non-EDS groups. Conclusions: With continued emphasis on reducing health care expenditure in orthopaedics, our findings suggest that preoperative EDS may not influence postoperative outcomes in CTR, and alternative diagnostic assessments, such as CTS-6 or ultrasound, may be considered when EDS is unavailable or unnecessary. Level of Evidence: Level III (Therapeutic).
Williams et al. (Fri,) studied this question.