• Bratisl Med J · Jan 2010

    Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study

    The comparison of ultrasound treatment and local steroid injection plus splinting in the carpal tunnel syndrome: a randomized controlled trial.

    • A Bilgici, H Ulusoy, O Kuru, and F Canturk.
    • Ondokuz Mayis University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Samsun, Turkey.
    • Bratisl Med J. 2010 Jan 1; 111 (12): 659-65.

    ObjectivesThis study aimed to compare the efficacy of ultrasound treatment to local corticosteroid injection plus splinting in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). There is still limited knowledge on the efficacy of conservative treatment options for CTS.MethodsFourty-nine hands of 34 patients with CTS were enrolled in this study. Patients were randomly assigned to the ultrasound treatment (group A) or local corticosteroid injection plus splinting (group B). The primary outcome measures included clinical parameters such as symptoms severity score, visual analogue scale (VAS) pain, functional status score, grip strength and two-point discrimination. The secondary outcome measures were the electrophysiological tests. The examinations were performed at baseline, and then at 4th and 8th weeks.ResultsAt the end of the study, a statistically significant improvement was obtained in all clinical parameters in the group B: VAS pain, severity of symptoms, functional status, grip strength (p < 0.001 for each) and two-point discrimination (p < 0.016). Also the group A showed significant improvements in all clinical parameters (p < 0.001 for each), except for the grip strength. Additionally, significant improvements in the median nerve sensory conduction velocity and distal motor latency were also found in both groups at the end of the 8 week follow-up period. There was no significant difference between the groups in the primary and secondary outcome measures, except for the grip strength.ConclusionsBoth ultrasound treatment and corticosteroid injection plus splinting were effective on the clinical symptoms and the electrophysiological findings of CTS. Thus, the ultrasound therapy may be an alternative treatment for CTS, particularly in patient who do not accept injection or splinting (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, Ref. 36).

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…