Original ArticleA Pilot Study Comparing Two Manual Therapy Interventions for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Section snippets
Study Population
The New York Chiropractic College ethics committee approved all measurement and clinical procedures for this study. Advertisements in local newspapers were used to recruit patients with clinically suspected CTS. A phone interview was used as an initial screening instrument for eligibility to participate in the study. The phone interview addressed the following exclusion criteria: (1) older than 50 years of age; (2) previous treatment interventions with surgery and/or steroid injections; (3) a
Study Population
During a period of 15 months, we phone interviewed 67 patients. Thirty-one of these patients did not qualify based upon our phone interview. Another 10 patients reported to the laboratory for clinical evaluations, but did not meet the inclusion criteria. Twenty-six patients with CTS were enrolled into the research study and were randomly allocated to either GISTM (n = 14) or STM (n = 12). Four of these patients dropped out of the research study. One patient dropped out of the study because of
Discussion
Manual therapies for CTS were effective at improving objective measures of impairments and patient-centered measures of symptom severity and functional abilities. Improvements to nerve conduction latencies, wrist strength, and wrist motion were objective indices of the clinical efficacy of manual therapies for CTS. Severity of symptoms and functional impairments are the major reasons that patients seek treatment. Similarly, relief of symptoms and restoration of functional abilities contribute
Conclusion
The current study addressed the clinical efficacy of manual therapy techniques for CTS, which was lacking sufficient evidence. The data from this prospective comparative research design documented the clinical efficacy of manual therapy for mild to moderate CTS. The recommendation for future research is to conduct randomized controlled trials using patient-centered measures as the primary outcome measures to relatively compare operative and/or nonoperative interventions for CTS to distinguish
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the financial support of TherapyCare Resources, Inc, Indianapolis, Ind. TherapyCare Resources, Inc, is the corporate entity for and owner of Graston Technique. The results presented herein represent the conclusions and opinions of the authors. Publication does not necessarily imply endorsement by TherapyCare Resources, Inc, or endorsement of its products by the authors. No commercial party having a direct interest in the results of the research supporting this article
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