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Cabrejo et al. Plast Aesthet Res 2023;10:1 Plastic and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-9264.2022.30
Aesthetic Research

Original Article Open Access

Treatment of recurrent carpal tunnel syndrome with
fat grafting as an adjunct

2
1
Raysa Cabrejo , Alison Podsednik , Joseph Rosen 1
1
Department of Surgery, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH 03766, USA.
2
Department of Medical School, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Joseph M. Rosen, MD, Department of Surgery, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, 1 Medical Center
Drive, Lebanon, NH 03766, USA. E-mail: joseph.m.rosen@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Cabrejo R, Podsednik A, Rosen J. Treatment of recurrent carpal tunnel syndrome with fat grafting as an
adjunct. Plast Aesthet Res 2023;10:1. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2022.30
Received: 22 Mar 2022 First Decision: 6 Jun 2022 Revised: 21 Jul 2022 Accepted: 30 Nov 2022 Published: 12 Jan 2023

Academic Editors: Matthew Iorio, Raymund E. Horch Copy Editor: Ying Han Production Editor: Ying Han

Abstract
Aim: The purpose of this study is to compare the surgical outcomes of treating recurrent carpal tunnel with
recurrent carpal tunnel release only compared to recurrent carpal tunnel release with fat grafting as an adjunct.
Methods: Retrospective case-control study was performed of the recurrent carpal tunnels treated, excluding
explicit nerve injury such as transections, neuromas in continuity, etc. Patients with recurrent carpal tunnel received
re-release of carpal tunnel only or fat grafting as an adjunct. The outcomes of both groups were compared utilizing
chi-square analysis.

Results: A total number of 81 patients were found to meet the inclusion criteria. Of the recurrences, a total of 16
patients did not receive fat grafting and 65 did. The rate of improvement in symptoms for performing a carpal
tunnel release was only 50.0% and for performing carpal tunnel release with fat grafting was 92%, with
P-value < 0.00.

Conclusion: Adipose-derived stem cells as an adjunct to carpal tunnel release increased the rate of improvement in
symptoms of carpal tunnel compression after recurrence compared to carpal tunnel release alone. Further studies
need to be performed to confirm the validity of these findings.

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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