Abstract
Aim/Background: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is caused as a result of entrapment of median nerve within the carpal tunnel. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of manual therapy techniques like carpal mobilisation and neural mobilisation in patients with CTS.
Methods: 30 subjects with CTS were randomly divided into 3 groups and were respectively treated with splinting (Group 1- Control), median nerve mobilisation and splinting (Group 2), carpal bone mobilisation and splinting (Group 3). The outcome measures tested were Symptom Severity Scale (SSS) and Functional Status Scale (FSS) of Boston Carpal Tunnel syndrome Questionnaire. Data collection was done on first day and after 21 days of therapy. Data was analysed using one way ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc comparisons.
Results: There was statistically significant difference in the status of SSS and FSS for all the groups after intervention, even in Group-1 (control group). But the difference was found highly significant (p<0.001) for Group-2 and Group-3 as compared to Group-1 (p<0.05 for SSS and p<0.01 for FSS). Tukey’s post-hoc analysis also demonstrated significant differences between the groups, particularly between Groups 1 and 2, as well as Group 1 and Group 3, suggesting that SSS (F=15.067, p<0.05) and FSS (F=7.422, p<0.01) varies notably between these groups.
Conclusion: This study favours the use of Neural mobilisation with median nerve bias and Carpal bone mobilisation, along with splinting as an effective choice for the conservative management of CTS.