The research effort focused on the results of 163 wrists belonging to 101 patients 93 women, 8 men who were referred by their primary care physician to a CTS unit specifically created for this study. All the patients had experienced CTS symptoms most notably, nightly attacks of extreme tingling and burning in the hand and fingers, which disrupted their sleep for at least 3 months. Of the total wrists, 80 were randomly assigned to the standard surgical procedure: decompression of the median nerve. The remaining 83 wrists were treated with local steroid injection. Patients in both groups were similar in age the median was 50 for the surgery group and 53 for the injection group as well as in the duration and severity of their symptoms.

All wrists were evaluated 14 days after the initial treatment. At that time, 69 of the wrists that had been treated with steroids received a second local injection. Researchers then assessed the symptoms of both groups at 3, 6, and 12 months, using visual analog scale scores to measure improvement. At the 3-month mark, 94 percent of the wrists in the injection group achieved significant improvement a response of 20 percent or better for the nocturnal symptoms, compared with 75 percent of wrists in the surgery group. At the 6-month mark, 85.5 percent of wrists in the injection group achieved a 20 percent or better response for the nocturnal symptoms, compared with 76.3 percent in the surgery group. At the 12-month mark, 69.9 percent of the wrists in the injection group achieved a 20 percent or better response for the nocturnal symptoms, compared with 70 percent in the surgery group. Throughout follow-up, results for two other symptoms measured daily pain in the wrist area and self-perceived f
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Contact: Amy Molnar
amolnar@wiley.com
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
3-Feb-2005