Effectiveness of physiotherapy in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS)

Abstract

Introduction: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is one of the most common peripheral upper limb's neuropathy. It can affect up to 4% of the human population. There is not one specifc CTS's reason. Predisposing factors include: injuries and overloading of the wrists, frequently repetitions of the same activities, pregnancy and acromegaly. The ENG and USG are gold standards in the diagnosis of CTS. CTS treatment includes surgical and physiotherapeutic conservative treatment. Physiotherapists uses manual therapy techniques, neuromobilization, fascial manipulation, osteopathy and other kinds of physical therapy. Material and methods: A systematic review of the literature was based on publications from the last 5 years. Articles concerned the physiotherapy of people with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Publications from the PubMed and ScienceDirect scientifc databases have been analyzed. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were introduced and based on an analysis of the titles and abstracts related to carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Results: Out of over 28,000 CTS articles, 8 were selected to meet all inclusion and exclusion criteria. The publications concerned physiotherapeutic treatment in the conservative treatment of CTS. The analyzed publications examined the effectiveness of wrist manual therapy, median nerve mobilization, kinesiotaping, soft tissue therapy and fascial manipulations as well as other physiotherapy treatments. Conclusions: The reviewed publications show that physiotherapeutic procedures bring signifcant benefts and improve CTS symptoms within the hand. The development of physiotherapy and research on rehabilitation in the carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) allow for more effective conservative treatment. This increases the chance of avoiding or delaying surgical intervention.