Comparison of therapeutic effcets of dorsal wrist splint with cockup splint in carpal tunnel syndrome based on median sensory nerve conduction measurements

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is one of the most common disease among the entrapment neuropathies. The purposes of this study was to compare the efficacy of a new dorsal wrist splinting versus common palmar splinting for CTS based on sensory nerve conduction measurements.

This single blind randomized control trial study was carried out on 22 idiopathic CTS patients. Subjects were randomly divided in two groups: Dorsal splint group (n=12) and palmar splint group (n=10). Both groups used splints for 4 weeks. Sensory conduction study of median nerve were done initially for having baseline and after 4 weeks follow up. SPSS-16 and Kolmogorov–Smirnov, independent T, and paired T tests were used for analysis of Data

After four weeks median nerve sensory distal latency and conduction velocity improved significantly in both groups (P<0.05). There was significant difference between both groups due to electro-diagnostic improvement.

This study showed that based on electro-diagnostic method, dorsal wrist splint is more effective than cockup splint in carpal tunnel syndrome.