[Aspiration of ganglia in the wrist]

Because of recently published good results we wished to evaluate the therapeutic effect among our own patients of simple aspiration of ganglia near the wrist. We entered 24 consecutive patients referred for operation of wrist ganglia into the study and administered a regimen of up to three aspirations at intervals of four to six weeks. There were five deviants from the protocol. Among the remaining 19 patients the ganglion had disappeared in 13 by the end of the aspiration regimen. However, one year after the first aspiration there had been seven recurrences. Only eight of the original 24 patients underwent surgery. The remainder felt that this was no longer necessary. In our material simple aspiration had little therapeutic effect, but markedly reduced the number of patients operated on for ganglia of the wrist.