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Updated: Apr 4, 2026

Metacarpal Small Incision for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Published on: April 5, 2024
Patient education for carpal tunnel syndrome: analysis of readability
Kyle R Eberlin1, Christina R Vargas2, Danielle J Chuang2
1Division of Plastic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA.
Background:
The National Institutes of Health and American Medical Association recommend a sixth grade reading level for patient-directed content. This study aims to quantitatively evaluate the readability of the most commonly used resources for surgical treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome.
Methods:
A web search for "carpal tunnel surgery" was performed using an Internet search engine, and the 13 most popular sites were identified. Relevant, patient-directed articles immediately accessible from the main site were downloaded and formatted into plain text. A total of 102 articles were assessed for readability using ten established analyses: first overall, then by website for comparison.
Results:
Patient information about carpal tunnel surgery had an overall average reading level of 13.1. Secondary analysis by website revealed a range of mean readability from 10.8 (high school sophomore level) to 15.3 (university junior level). All sites exceeded the recommended sixth grade reading level.
Conclusions:
Online patient resources for carpal tunnel surgery uniformly exceed the recommended reading level. These are too difficult to be understood by a large portion of American adults. A better understanding of readability may be useful in tailoring more appropriate resources for average patient literacy.
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