Efficacy of local glucocorticoid injection in carpal tunnel syndrome refractory to pharmacotherapy– an experience from a tertiary care centre

J Vishalakshy; S Surendran; A Divakaran; H Movva; J Narayanan

Volume : IX, Issue : IV, April - 2019

Efficacy of local glucocorticoid injection in carpal tunnel syndrome refractory to pharmacotherapy– an experience from a tertiary care centre

J Vishalakshy, S Surendran, A Divakaran, H Movva, J Narayanan

Abstract :

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a common clinical condition caused by the compression of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel. We aim to assess the efficacy of a local corticosteroid injection for treatment of moderate / severe CTS. We retrospectively collected data from 20 patients who presented with symptoms and nerve conduction suggestive of CTS with no improvement following pregabalin (75mg/day). They were given a local methyl prednisolone injection(40mg). The pre and post injections Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) was the primary outcome measure and were compared using paired t–test. The BCTQ (3.9 + 0.47 vs 1.8 + 0.92) showed significant improvement between the pre and post injection patients (p<0.001). Only one patient required surgical decompression. 18 (90%) of the patients reported there was no longer a difficulty performing ADLs post injection. We thus concluded that local corticosteroid injection can provide an alternative to decompression surgery for moderate/severe CTS