Abstract
We prospectively followed up patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in our previous
study for 1 year. A total of 77 consecutive patients with electrophysiologically confirmed
mild-to-moderate idiopathic CTS were randomized and assigned into 2 treatment arms:
1) 2 weeks of prednisolone 20 mg daily followed by 2 weeks of prednisolone 10 mg daily
(n = 39); and 2) acupuncture administered in 8 sessions over 4 weeks (n = 38). In
the current study, the patients were further followed up at 7 and 13 months using
Global symptom score (GSS) assessments and nerve conduction studies repeated again
at 13 months. When comparing with baseline levels, the percentages of patients with
treatment failure, moderate improvement, and good improvement were significantly different
between the 2 groups at month 7 [10.5, 2.6, and 86.8% for the acupuncture group and
33.3, 7.7, and 59% for the steroid group, respectively (P = .014)] and month 13 [15.8, 2.6, and 81.6% versus 51.3, 0, and 48.7%, respectively
(P = .002)]. The acupuncture group had a significantly better improvement in GSS, distal
motor latencies and distal sensory latencies when compared to the steroid group throughout
the 1-year follow-up period (P < .01). Furthermore, significant correlation was observed between changes of GSS
(month 13–baseline) and all parameters of the electrophysiological assessments except
for compound muscle action potential amplitude.
Perspective
This article demonstrates that short-term acupuncture treatment may result in long-term
improvement in mild-to-moderate idiopathic CTS. Acupuncture treatment can be considered
as an alternative therapy to other conservative treatments for those who do not opt
for early surgical decompression.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 29, 2010
Accepted:
September 16,
2010
Received in revised form:
September 6,
2010
Received:
July 12,
2010
Footnotes
Supported by a grant from Kuang Tien General Hospital and registered with the National Institutes of Health, ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01014221. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
