ArticleHand (New York, N.Y.)2024
Examining the Public's Most Frequently Asked Questions About Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Appraising Online Information About Treatment.
Article in Hand (New York, N.Y.), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Comparing Online Patient Searches About Carpal Tunnel Release Approaches: A Study on Modern Search Analytics.Hand (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Readability analysis of AAOS and ASSH shoulder and elbow patient education online content: A 9-year follow-up study.Bulletin of the Hospital for Joint Disease (2013) · 2025Article
- Readability and quality assessment of online patient education materials for spinal and epidural anesthesia.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2024Article
- Digital Patient Education on Xanthelasma Palpebrarum: A Content Analysis.Clinics and practice · 2023Article
- Insights Into Patients Questions Over Bunion Treatments: A Google Study.Foot & ankle orthopaedics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCarpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy. Patients often search online for health information regarding common musculoskeletal complaints. Thus, the purpose of this study was to use language processing information from Google to assess the content of CTS frequently asked questions (FAQs) searched online and the transparency and quality of online CTS information.
methodsOn March 11, 2021, we searched Google for 3 terms "carpal tunnel syndrome treatment," "carpal tunnel syndrome surgical treatment," and "carpal tunnel syndrome non-surgical treatment" until a minimum of 100 FAQs and their answer links were extracted from each search. We used Rothwell classification to categorize the FAQs. The
resultsOur Google search returned 124 unique FAQs. Fifty-six (45.2%) were value based and most were related to the evaluation of treatment options (45/56, 80.4%). The most common source type was medical practices (26.6%). Nearly half of the answer sources (45.9%) were found to be lacking in transparency. One-way analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in mean Brief DISCERN scores among the 5 source types,
conclusionsPatients are most commonly searching Google to gain information regarding CTS treatment options. Online sources such as medical practices should use widely accepted rubrics for ensuring transparency and quality prior to publishing CTS information.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.