Wide-awake carpal tunnel release may reduce costs

Key takeaways:

Monitored anesthesia care increased total facility costs by about $176 vs. a wide-awake technique.

Personnel and supply costs were higher among the monitored anesthesia care group.

Perspective from Robert E. Van Demark Jr., MD, FACS, FAAOS, FAOA

Results published in Journal of Hand Surgery showed monitored anesthesia care for carpal tunnel release was 35% more costly compared with the wide-awake local anesthesia no tourniquet technique.

“[Surgeons should] consider implementing a wide awake local anesthetic technique,” Terence L. Thomas, MD, an orthopedic surgery resident at Rothman Orthopaedic Institute at Thomas Jefferson University, told Healio. “Finding ways to improve value for patients by maximizing their outcomes with these surgeries and finding ways to red