To Investigate the Therapeutic Effect of Aculife Magnetic Therapist on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Overview

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common compressive focal mononeuropathy seen in clinical practice. Patients commonly experience a constellation of symptom complex brought on by compression of the median nerve as it traverse through the carpal tunnel. When compression of the nerve occurs, ischemia and mechanical disruption of nerve function may result. Pathological analysis shows a constellation of nerve injuries. Until now, no satisfactory conservative treatment method. Local steroid injections or oral steroids may result in initial relief, but relapses are frequent and have much side effects, which preclude their routine use for CTS. Full time wrist splints are claimed effective, but compromise hand function and daily activities. There are reasonable studies showing relief of pain with acupuncture on diverse pain conditions. However the therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture in CTS was less convincing in the past. Until recent decade, some case reports and few prospective studies reported the therapeutic effect of acupuncture in CTS. Other study also reported that low-level laser and microamperes transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) are effective in improvement of clinical outcome of patients with CTS. Another report suggested that TENS should be considered for the treatment of painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Therefore, the investigators perform this study to evaluate the effect of Aculife Magnetic Wave Therapist (a battery operated device with a probe electrode which contains magnetic elements that transform the oscillating current into an electromagnetic wave to stimulate the acupuncture points, simulate the effect of electroacupuncture ) on CTS and compared with that of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation(TENS). After at least 4 weeks treatment ( at least 16 treatment sessions) the therapeutic effects will be evaluated by comparison of symptom severity score, electrophysiological study, sonographic morphology study or magnetic resonance imaging study, before and after treatment, and between the different groups.