| Clinical and Electrophysiological Changes after Local Steroid Injection in the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome |
| Jihoon Kim1, Kee Ook Lee1, Bora Yoon1, Yong-Duk Kim1, Un Suk Jung2, and Sang-Jun Na1 |
1Department of Neurology, Konyang University Hospital, Daejeon, Korea
2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Konyang University Hospital, Daejeon, Korea |
| Corresponding Author:
Sang-Jun Na ,Tel: +82-42-600-8814, Fax: +82-42-545-0050, Email: nukedoc@hanmail.net |
|
Received January 15, 2013 Accepted June 3, 2013 |
| Copyright © 2013 The Korean Society of Clinical Neurophysiology |
| This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited. |
| ABSTRACT |
Background: Local steroid injection is used to treat carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and electrophysiological effects of local steroid injection in patients with CTS over a 3-months period.
Methods: Twenty-one satients (35 hands) with clinical and electrophysiological evidence of CTS were treated by injection of triamcinolone 40 mg to the carpal tunnel. Visual analog scale (VAS), Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ), rates of paresthesia, night awakening, and electrophysiological studies were used as outcomes. Clinical and electrophysiological assessments were performed before, 1 and 3 months after treatment.
Results: Prior to treatment, 86% of patients complained of night awakening. At 1 and 3 months after injection, only 17% and 29% of the patients, respectively, had night awakening (p<0.001). All patients complained of paresthesia before the treatment. This symptom disappeared in 60% and 31% of the patients after 1 and 3 months, respectively (p<0.001). Compared to baseline, both BCTQ and VAS show significant improvement during the 3 months of the study (p<0.005). Although significant improvements in clinical parameters were shown, electrophysiological parameters were not significantly improved at 1 and 3 months.
Conclusions: Local corticosteroid injection for the treatment of CTS provides significant improvement in symptoms for 3 months. On the other hand, no significant improvement was observed in electrophysiological parameters. |
| Key words:
Carpal tunnel syndrome, Electrophysiology, Steroid injections |
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