The effects of diabetes on symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome treated with mini-open surgery

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of type H diabetes mellitus (DM) on the postoperative outcomes of mini-open carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) surgery. A total of 99 hands in 74 patients were included in the study. Of these, 36 patients (54 hands) had type H DM (Group A), and 38 patients (45 hands) had idiopathic CTS (Group B). Mini-open carpal tunnel release surgery was performed on all the hands. The night pain, weakness, paraesthesia, numbness complaints were significantly improved in both groups after surgery. However, thenar atrophy was improved significantly only in group A. Night pain, weakness, paraesthesia, numbness, and pillar pain were significantly worse in Group A than in Group B on postoperative examination. Postoperatively, Tinnel and Phalen tests were positive in 32 hands in Group A and 6 hands in Group B. Persistence of symptoms in diabetic patients was found to be more prevalent compared to non-diabetic controls after mini-open carpal tunnel release.