Electroacupuncture helps with carpal tunnel syndrome

Electroacupuncture treatment in combination with a nocturnal wrist splint can easily relieve symptoms and improve function. This is the result of a study from Hong Kong.

Electroacupuncture can relieve pain. Picture: thingamajiggs - fotolia

The Hong Kong researchers examined 181 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome in their randomized and controlled study. All patients wore a wrist splint for at least 8 hours at night. One half of the subjects were additionally treated with electroacupuncture. They received 13 treatments in 17 weeks.

After 5 and 17 weeks, the electroacupuncture group showed slight improvements in symptomatology and function, ie mobility and strength. The effect size was low, but nachweißbar. It was also shown that wearing the nocturnal splint alone could not improve the symptoms. The study can be found here.