Treatment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome With Medical Acupuncture

Abstract

Background:Conservative management plays an important role in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. Non-surgical options include physical and occupational therapy, splints, steroid injections, yoga, carpal bone mobilization, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Clinical experience demonstrates that acupuncture should be considered among these treatments as it may provide symptomatic relief to patients with this disorder. Objective: To demonstrate an acupuncture protocol for the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. Design, Setting, and Patients: Seventeen patients with electrodiagnostically confirmed carpal tunnel syndrome treated by a solo medical acupuncture practitioner for carpal tunnel syndrome. Patients were seen between 1998 and 2007 at the practitioner's New York office. Intervention: Needling of PC 6, PC 7, TH 5, and Baxie 1 and 2 points. Most patients additionally received osteopathic manual therapy. Main Outcome Measure: Patient-reported symptom relief. Results: Twelve of 17 patients had partial or complete symptom relief with treatment. Two patients' symptoms were considered too severe for acupuncture treatment. The remaining 3 patients had no appreciable change in their symptoms. Conclusion: The acupuncture method described herein can be an effective treatment for mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome. This report should prompt a larger prospective trial.

Acupuncture and Ergonomic interventions in the management of carpal tunnel syndrome among industrial workers- Case studies

“…The result of this study was in line with previous research studies. One randomized trial study with long-term follow-up (13 months) compared acupuncture with oral steroids in management of CTS (Naeser, et al, 2002), and another randomized controlled trial study compared efficacy of acupuncture with night splinting (5 weeks) for CTS (Schulman, Liem, and Moroz, 2008). Both studies found that electro-acupuncture was more effective in mild to moderate CTS.…”

“…Acupuncture is the most familiar complementary and alternative medicine, especially in Chinese medical treatments (World Health Organization, 2002). The efficacy of acupuncture in management of mild to moderate CTS has been investigated in a limited number of studies (Freedman, 2002;Naeser, et al, 2002;Schulman, Liem, and Moroz, 2008), and mixed results have been reported (O'Connor, Marshall, and Massy-Westropp, 2003;Yang, et al, 2009;Ernst, 2009;Kumnerddee and Kaewtong, 2010;Sim. et al, 2011).…”

Acupuncture and electroacupuncture in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome: Systematic review

“…acupuntura y la electroacupuntura mostrando mejorías en el STC (►Tabla 3). [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] El único estudio introducido que no mostró cambios favorables ha sido el de Yao y colaboradores (►Tabla 3). 43 Estos autores obtuvieron que el grupo de intervención de acupuntura mejoró a los 3 meses de forma idéntica al del grupo placebo.…”

“…Schulman y cols., 200823 (À) ( À)( À) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( À)Shokunbi, 201424 (À) ( À)( À) ( À) ( À) ( À) ( À) Napadow y cols., 2004 25 (À) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ) Zailaa, 2010 26 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ) Ding y Shen, 2013 27 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Wong y cols., 2016 28 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Dimitrova y cols., 2019 29 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Chen y cols., 2017 30 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Ural y Öztürk, 2017 31 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Maeda y cols., 2017 32 (À) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ)Hadianfard y cols., 201533 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Maeda y cols., 2013a 34 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( þ) ( À) ( þ) ( À) Ho y cols., 2014 35 (À) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Maeda y cols., 2013b 36 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Khosrawi y cols., 2012 37 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) Kumnerddee Kaewtong 2010 38 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( þ) Yang y cols., 2011 39 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( À) Yang y cols., 2009 40 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( À) ( À) ( þ) ( À) Napadow y cols., 2007 41 (þ) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) Napadow y cols., 2006 42 (þ) ( þ) ( þ) ( À) ( þ) ( þ)( À)Yao y cols., 201243 (þ) ( þ) ( À) ( þ) ( þ) ( À)( À)Leyenda: (þ), sesgo bajo; (À), sesgo alto; (? ), no permite valoración.…”

Effects of Catgut -Embedding Therapy in Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: a Retrospective Pilot Study

“…10 The efficacy of acupuncture in the management of mild-to-moderate CTS has been investigated in some studies. [11][12][13] Yang et al 14 showed that short-term acupuncture treatment was as effective as oral prednisolone in mild-to-moderate CTS. However, there are no case reports or studies on catgut-embedding therapy for CTS.…”