Rahman Rasool Akhtar, Junaid Khan, Riaz Ahmed, Kanza Batool.
Comparison of local steroid injection and surgical decompression in treatment of carpol tunnel syndrome.
Isra Med J Jan ;9(1):29-33.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of local steroid injection versus surgical decompression in treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome in terms of frequency of pain. STUDY DESIGN: A Randomized controlled study. rd nd PLACE AND DURATION: At Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan for a duration of 02 years from 3 January, 2013 to 2 January, 2015. METHODOLOGY: The study included 130 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. Patients were graded according to severity of pain based upon Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS). Lottery method was used to allocate the patients randomly into two groups. Group A contained 65 patients who were subjected to surgical decompression and 65 patients were in Group B who were injected with local steroid injection. Complete history was obtained from all patients. All the surgical decompressions through mini incision technique. Information were recorded on a pre designed Performa. RESULTS: Efficacy (at least one grade improvement in pain at one month) was observed to be significantly high in group B patients who were treated with local steroid injection (87.8%) as compared to group A patients who underwent surgical decompression for carpal tunnel syndrome (72.3%). CONCLUSION: The steroid injections are more effective than surgical decompression in management of carpal tunnel syndrome.

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