Background
: A ganglion of the hand and the wrist most commonly occurs in the
upper extremities. It is reported that its excision under general anesthesia has the highest rate
of complete recovery of 94%. But the tumor of the hand is often experienced in the initial
treatment. The study was to compare the two groups, one group undergoing surgical oper
ations under local anesthesia at private clinics and the other group operated under general
anesthesia at orthopedics of general hospitals.

Methods : The general anesthesia group were 56
cases with tumor only in hand and wrist who had operational treatments with a diagnosis of
ganglion at orthopedics in a certain general hospital from 1990 to 1999. The local anesthesia
group were 68 cases with tumor only in hand and wrist who had operational treatments with a
diagnosis of ganglion in 19 private clinics from 1992 to 2000. The relationship between the

Results of the two groups were compared and analysed.

Results : There was no significant
difference in the general characteristics between the two groups (P＞0.05). The recurrence
rates were 8.9% in the general anesthesia group and 11.8% in the local anesthesia group, and
the average recurrence periods were 9.4 months and 12 months, respectively. The two groups
did not show significant difference in the recurrence rate and recurrence period (P＞0.05). The
recurrence rates of ganglion according to age and size also showed no significant difference
(P＞0.05). The two groups showed a high significance in the recurrence rate when they were
related to the joint capsule (P=0.05).

Conclusion : There was a significant relationship between
the size of ganglion of the hand and its association with articular membrane with the
recurrence rate, but there was no difference in the anesthetic techniques.