Effect of three traditional conservative treatment techniques on patients with mild-to-moderate carpal tunnel syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common peripheral nerve entrapment syndrome that can be treated in a variety of ways, including manual therapy, massage, and acupuncture.

Purpose: Traditional conservative treatment techniques have been widespread used for treatment of patients with mild-to-moderate carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), such as manual therapy, massage, and acupuncture. However, there appears to be no consensus about the benefits of traditional conservative treatment techniques for patients with CTS. This systematic review and meta-analysis were aimed to analyze the effectiveness of three traditional conservative treatment techniques (manual therapy, massage, and acupuncture) on the patients with mild-to-moderate CTS.

Study design: Intervention systematic review with meta-analysis.

Methods: Randomized controlled clinical trails were searched from the inception of PubMed, Web of Science and CNKI up to May 22, 2024. Mean differences (MD) or standardized mean differences (SMD) were used as effect sizes by us and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to analyze these studies. Analyses were performed using RevMan 5.3 software. Funnel plots and Egger's test were used to assess publication bias.

Results: A total of 14 articles with 1110 patients with mild-to-moderate CTS satisfied the inclusion criteria in this systematic review and meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that the three traditional conservative treatment techniques can significantly reduce the Boston Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Questionnaire (BCTQ) [MD = -1.55, 95% CI (-2.15, -0.95), p < 0.00001], Symptom Severity Scale (SSS) [MD = -0.90, 95% CI (-1.28, -0.51), p < 0.00001], Functional Status Scale (FSS) [MD = -0.85, 95% CI (-1.17, -0.54), p < 0.00001] and pain [SMD = -2.03, 95% CI (-2.75, -1.30), p < 0.00001] scores, and improve sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) [MD = 5.37, 95% CI (2.43, 8.32), P = 0.0004] compared with the control group.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that three traditional conservative treatment techniques can effectively improve the severity of symptoms, functional status, pain levels, and sensory nerve conduction velocity on patients with mild-to-moderate CTS.