PhD defence M.C. (Miguel) Jansen

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common peripheral neuropathy in the general population. Because of this relatively high prevalence, CTS leads to a decreased quality of life and high indirect and direct economic costs worldwide. This thesis aims to improve the outcomes of CTS care by improving the collection of patient-reported outcome measurements and examine patient and treatment factors that might be of influence on the outcome of surgical treatment of primary and secondary CTS. 
In this thesis, we diminished the number of questions needed to ask a patient from eighteen to a maximum of six questions when administering the widely used Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) and this way, reducing response burden for patients. 

Furthermore, we found that the severity of CTS, the presence of comorbidities of the hand, mental state and the illness perception of the patient are of influence on the experienced CTS complaints and on the return to work after surgical treatment. Moreover, we showed that there is no association between treatment volume and outcomes following surgical treatment of primary CTS at six months postoperative. Furthermore, this thesis showed that the outcome after revision surgery is worse compared to the outcome after primary surgery for CTS, but that the differences are relatively small. Also we showed in a meta-analysis that, based on the available literature, the hypothenar fat pad technique for operating recurrent CTS leads to the best postoperative outcomes on CTS complaints relative to other techniques.

Due to corona, the PhD defences do not take place publicly in the usual way in the Senate Hall or in the Professor Andries Querido Room. The candidates will defend their dissertation either in a small group or online.