Methylprednisolone acetate injection with casting versus casting alone for the treatment of De-Quervain's...

To compare the success of treatment between thumb spica cast with "methylprednisolone acetate injection" versus thumb spica cast alone for the treatment of de Quervain's disease as functional outcomes, complications and patient compliance.

A single blinded randomized controlled trial using a probability sampling technique was conducted from January 2014 to h February 2017at the Orthopaedic Unit II, King Edward Medical University / Mayo Hospital, Lahore. A total of 134 patients of both genders, between 30-60 years of age presented with wrist pain and diagnosed de Quervain's disease, were included in the study. Patients were randomly divided into two group by the computer allocation method. Patients in Group-A received thumb spica cast with methylprednisolone acetate and xylocaine injection while patients in Group-B were treated with thumb spica cast alone. The outcome variable was frequency of successful treatment which was noted and compared among the groups.

Amongst the total 134 patients, the age of the patients ranged from 30 to 60 years with a mean of 37.16±5.15 years. Most of the patients were aged between 30 40 years (78.8%) followed by 41-50 years (21.2%). There were 38 (28.4%) male and 96 (71.6%) female patients in the study group with a male to female ratio of 1:2.5. In group-A mean VAS and Quick DASH score before treatment and after the treatment was statistically significant (p-value <0.001). In group-B mean VAS and Quick DASH score before and after the treatment was also significant (p-value <0.001) ( Table-2).

The effectiveness of treatment was significantly higher in patients treated with thumb spica cast with methylprednisolone acetate injection as compared to thumb spica cast alone.