Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - Steroid Injection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

What is the role of steroid injection in carpal tunnel syndrome?

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - Steroid Injection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - Steroid Injection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - Steroid Injection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - Steroid Injection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Injection of corticosteroid into the carpal tunnel has been used as a treatment for some years. But what does the published evidence have to say about either it works or not?

In my own experience, injection of steroid and / or local anaesthetic is effective in about half of the patients that I see. Some of them gain chronic relief of the symptoms and others find that the symptoms of tingling in the mean nerve skin area return a month or two after the injection.

Recent Studies on Steroid Injection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Two small but quite good potential studies have been published recently. These are what is known as randomised controlled studies and the results of this kind of study are commonly (but not always) reliable.

Both studies showed that injection with steroid produced advantage with about a month of the injection. The advantage was sustained in many of the patients.

The studies compared carpal tunnel steroid injection with placebo injection. Placebo injection is when both the physician and the sick person think that an active drug is being injected but when - in truth - only an inert and inactive liquid is in the syringe.

The patients who were given the active drug typically reported an revising in their symptoms of about 70% - compared with revising of about 15% in the patients who were given a placebo.

The risks of steroid injection are small but not zero. Some citizen find the injection to be very painful for two or three days afterwards. There is a small risk that the injected liquid may enter a blood vessel or may be injected into the mean nerve itself. This last qoute is rare but can potentially be very serious.

Dr Gordon Cameron's website contains more facts about carpal tunnel syndrome and its treatment.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - Steroid Injection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

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