Background: There are advantages and disadvantages for bilateral simultaneous carpal tunnel release (CTR) surgery and also lack of clinical guidelines about this type of surgery. This study aimed to compare the activity level and level of satisfaction post surgery among people who have undergone unilateral and bilateral simultaneous release surgery.
Methods: This longitudinal descriptive study was conducted on 60 patients with bilateral CTS, who were candidates for surgery based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the relevant statistical population. A total of 30 patients who wanted to perform bilateral simultaneous CTR surgeries and 30 patients who wanted to perform unilateral CTR surgery were operated by an orthopaedic specialist. The ADL-IADL questionnaire was completed before the surgery, three and 14 days after the surgery.
Results: The ADL-IADL questionnaire showed no significant difference between the two groups in the dependency score of the samples before surgery, three and 14 days after surgery. In the checklist used to evaluate the satisfaction of the results of the surgery in daily life tasks, 95% of patients expressed high or moderate satisfaction with their surgery, while only 5% expressed neither satisfaction nor dissatisfaction.
Conclusion: According to the results, the ability to perform daily life tasks, especially in observing personal hygiene in patients, who underwent bilateral simultaneous surgery three days after the surgery, did not significantly differ from those who underwent unilateral surgery. Most of the patients who underwent bilateral surgery were satisfied with this type of surgery. Finally, in this study, bilateral simultaneous CTR was suggested for people with bilateral CTS.