Alternative treatment of the carpal tunnel syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a painful disease of the wrist which is usually treated with corticoids locally or surgically. In this study combined infusion therapy with procain, pentoxyphyllin and magnesium sulphuricum in patients with CTS was evaluated retrospectively. 101 manually working patients (65 male, 36 female) aged 42.8 +/- 8.6 years, initially examined at our department to assess professional origin of the disease and who had abnormal conduction to the distal section of median nerve on electromyography (EMG), were entrolled. The group of patients was heterogenous etiologically. 41% of patients were found to be exposed to overlimit vibrations, while 21% of patients were exposed to overload of upper extremities and 16% patients to both the risks. The professional hazard was not proved in 23% of patients. In these patients 166 CTS were diagnosed of which 144 improved after the treatment, while the condition remained unchanged in 11 and even worsened in another 11 cases. Using the clinical and EMG criteria the findings were divided to mild, moderate and severe CTS. 77 mild CTS improved by 61% in average, 63 moderate CTS were improved by 47% and 26 of severe CTS improved by 50%. There was no association between the treatment outcome and sex, age or severity of symptoms. Patients with unfavourite outcome and the possible causes of treatment failure are discussed in detail.