Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-Physiotherapy as Good as Surgery

The study demonstrates that physical therapy - and particularly a combination of manual therapy of the neck and median nerve and stretching exercises - may be preferable to surgery, certainly as a starting point for treatment. "Conservative treatment may be an intervention option for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome as a first line of management prior to or instead of surgery," says lead author César Fernández de lasPeñas. He and his fellow researchers studied the cases of 100 women with carpal tunnel syndrome. By random allocation, 50 women were treated with physical therapy and 50 with surgery. Patients assigned to the physical therapy group were treated with manual therapy techniques that focused on the neck and median nerve for 30 minutes, once a week, with stretching exercises at home.