Appropriateness of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Management Compared With the AAOS Appropriate Use Criteria (CTS)

Purpose: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common peripheral nerve entrapment disorder among adults that causes upper-extremity disability. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) developed an evidence-based appropriate use criteria (AUC) for the management of CTS. This study aims to assess the appropriateness of our practice and the usability of the AUC by comparing the actual management provided at our institution with that recommended by the AUC.

Methods: A retrospective review of the electronic medical records at our hospital will be performed between 1 Jan 2016 and 31 Dec 2019. Data will be collected by two authors independently. The collected data will be input into the AUC application to determine the rate of the appropriateness of the treatments. Afterwards, the agreement between the actual treatment provided and the AUC recommendation will be assessed. The primary outcome will be the appropriateness rate. Descriptive statistics such as the mean, range and percentage will be used to summarize the patients' demographics and treatment options.

Results: The appropriateness rating (appropriate, maybe, or rarely appropriate) for each treatment will be described with percentages. Similarly, the agreement of the treatments implemented at our institution with the AUC recommendations will be expressed as a proportion. A subgroup analysis within the same cohort compared the appropriateness rates of surgical release of patients across different surgical specialties using chi2 test.

Conclusion: This study will show if the management provided at our institution were appropriate and in agreement with the AUC recommendations. Additionally, it will test the usability of AUC for carpal tunnel syndrome as a valuable and practical tool that can be applied in clinical settings.