Compression of the median nerve at the wrist remains one of the most frequently encountered disorders seen in the orthopaedist and hand surgeon’s office. In 1993, the Brigham’s and Women’s Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire, a self-administered patient outcome instrument, was developed by Levine et al. to assess the functional status and symptom severity in carpal tunnel syndrome patients in a single academic institution. Our study applied their questionnaire in an office setting in northwestern Pennsylvania. One-hundred-thirty-seven patients, 71 men and 66 women, mean age, 54 years (range, 24 to 93 years), representing 159 affected wrists, were enrolled from the office of the senior author. Thirty-seven patients (40 wrists) were receiving Workers’ Compensation benefits. Following an average of six months of nonsurgical management, carpal tunnel releases were performed. Preoperatively, clinical examination was coupled with the use of the Brigham and Women’s Questionnaire to establish baseline symptoms and functioning. The physical examination and questionnaire were repeated three months after surgery and then annually thereafter. Additionally, patient recall of baseline symptoms and functioning was assessed at each follow-up visit based on second set of survey responses. To date, mean follow-up time has been six months (range, 2 to 15.6 months). Data analysis included paired and independent t-tests, scatter plot, and correlation analysis. Symptom severity and functional status scores indicated significant clinical improvement, evidencing 45% and 34% score reductions (p<.001), respectively. Mean scores at follow-up were 1.65 +/- 0.53 and 1.69 +/- 0.64, respectively. Scores for Workers’ Compensation beneficiaries were not significantly different from the remainder of the cohort (p >/=.129). Finally, scores reflective of symptom and function recall were moderately correlated with actual baseline measurements ( r >/=.521, p <.001) . This study demonstrates that patients undergoing carpal tunnel release in a community environment evidenced significant improvements in pain and function following surgical treatment. Secondarily, recall of patient’s pretreatment condition at follow-up can be obtained with a modest level of reliability.