Patient Likelihood to Repeat Surgery After Highly "Successful" Hand Procedures

Outcomes for routine hand procedures, such as carpal tunnel release, trigger finger release, and first dorsal compartment release, are typically reported as "highly successful" with "infrequent complications" based on classic literature. No contemporary study has utilized a large prospective registry to assess patient willingness to repeat surgery. We utilized a prospective hand registry to evaluate the proportion of patients that would repeat surgery after common hand procedures.

We utilized a prospective, hand surgery registry to collect postoperative patient likelihood to repeat surgery in patients undergoing surgery for 9 common hand procedures. All measures were reported at 12, 24, or 52 weeks. We analyzed the percentage of patients that would repeat the procedure for all diagnoses, as well as stratified by the most common 9 isolated diagnoses.

At the time of analysis, 1905 patients met our inclusion criteria. The average percentage of patients across all procedures that would repeat surgery was 81.6%. When stratified by the most common 9 diagnoses the percentage of patients that would repeat surgery ranged from 51.9% (ulnar nerve surgery at the elbow) up to 87.5% (endoscopic carpal tunnel release).

After undergoing routine hand procedures, a significant percentage of patients would choose not to repeat surgery. Hand surgeons can do better in setting clear and realistic preoperative expectations when counseling patients prior to even routine hand surgeries.