Therapeutic Value of Carpal Tunnel Injection

Kim, Cheol Hyeon; Lee, Yang Soo; Kim, Poonh Taek

Abstract

In order to define the role of steroid injection as a inethod of treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome, this study was performed on twenty-four hands(bilateral injections were done in ten patients) in fourteen patients. One to five times injection were done in each hand by one physiatrist who used the same technique. Follow-up periods after last steroid injection averaged 103 days(61~193 days). Hands that initially had mild symptoms and findings of less than one year's duration, no evidence of thenar atrophy, median sensory latencies of 4.3 msec or less and median distal motor latencies of 5.7 msec or less had more satisfactory responses to injections. Man had also satisfactory responses to injections. Completely responsed symptoms were night awakening(88%), pain(66%), tingling sense(40%), weakness(25%) and numbness(0%), in orders.