Brothers Create Radical Carpal Tunnel Treatment

A doctor in Frederick, Maryland, Nathan Wei, M.D., is using a new procedure to treat carpal tunnel syndrome that has his patients grateful and excited about it. As described by Patti Borda Mullins, writing for the Frederick News Post, the procedure is done without general anesthesia, the patient has no pain from the procedure and the patient’s symptoms are completely relieved.

As one patient told Mullins, “I’ve had (the procedure), but you can’t tell it, ” she said, pointing to the pink dots on her wrist. “No one would know it but me. I’m just thrilled.”

It began when Wei learned about the doctor brothers Danqing Guo and Danzhu Guo, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, who worked with a third brother Joe Guo, an expert in materials bioscience at Northwestern University. Together they developed the method that uses ultrasound to guide a thread around delicate nerves and tendons in the wrist.

As Mullins described the procedure, it involves making small needle incisions through the wrist to allow for sewing using a special thread designed by Joe Guo.

The surgeon loops the thread around the transverse carpal ligament and saws through it to release the tension that causes symptoms. Wei told Mullins that the use of ultrasound and the special thread make the process unique. “Is that cool, or what?” Mullins wrote that he asked.

Daqing Guo went to Maryland to teach Wei the technique which they call “thread carpal tunnel release”, or TCTR. Wei said that the first time he performed the procedure; it took him about 30 minutes. By the time he had done it a third time, he told Mullins that he completed it in 15 minutes. Patients recover in about 24 hours. Wei credits the use of ultrasound for the success of the treatment. “Most orthopedists do not know how to use diagnostic ultrasound, ” Wei said. “That is the secret sauce.”