Does Addition of a Longer Acting Local Anesthetic Improve Postoperative Pain After Carpal Tunnel Release? A Randomized Controlled Trial

Carpal tunnel release (CTR) is a simple and effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome in patients who have failed nonsurgical management. This surgery is often performed in the ambulatory clinic under local anesthesia, with lidocaine, a short-acting agent. Few studies have investigated the use of longer acting agents, such as bupivacaine, for outpatient CTR. Therefore, the aim of our study was to compare the postoperative pain experience after CTR with the use of either our standard lidocaine solution (control) or a mixture consisting of lidocaine and bupivacaine in equal amounts (intervention).