I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel about 20 years ago. I wore the wrist braces every night with moderate relief. I then started with the cortisone injections every 3-6 months with moderate relief and then they didn't work anymore. I worked for a pain management doctor at the time and he did some nerve testing on my arm and found that carpal tunnel wasn't my real problem but that I had a nerve impingement in my elbow. Started getting cortison injections in my elbow. Than my hands started getting numb again. I saw my ortho doctor and he wanted to do the surgery. I finally agreed. As a nurse, I knew that the success rate was very low. I started doing some research and found that perhaps there was a nerve problem higher up. I made an appointment with a chiropractor. At my first visit, he did exrays of my neck and shoulders. He could tell that I had been in an accident about 20 years ago and that I had a neck injury. My "carpal Tunnel" was actually a pinched nerve in my neck. I cancelled my surgery and I worked with the chiropractor and home therapy for about 3 months and all numbness and tingling went away. I still do home excercises to keep my neck in alignment and prevent the nerve from being pinched. The carpal tunnel surgery has such a high failure rate because it is often misdiagnosed. Make sure it really is carpal tunnel that you have.