Author: Szeto, On
Title: Effectiveness of rigid and semi-rigid wrist-hand orthoses for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome
Degree: M.Sc.
Year: 2009
Subject: Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations
Carpal tunnel syndrome -- Treatment
Orthopedic apparatus
Department: Department of Health Technology and Informatics
Pages: viii, 73 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 31 cm.
Language: English
Abstract: Objective: The main objective of this study is to conduct randomised control trial to compare the effectiveness between Rigid Wrist-Hand Orthosis (RWHO) treatment group and Semi-Rigid Wrist-Hand Orthosis (SRWHO) treatment group in neutral position for patients with mild to moderate Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Method: Thirty three patients were recruited in this study. There were a total of 28 and 23 hands affected with CTS, and they were allocated to RWHO group and SRWHO group respectively. The relative effectiveness between treatment groups were compared and analyzed correspondingly by Self-Administered Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Questionnaire (Chinese version) in score of symptoms severity and functional status, hand grip test, pinch grip test and monofilament test at week 1, week 5 and week 9. All subjects were instructed to apply the orthosis during every sleep time for at least 6 hours per day for 8 weeks. Outcome measure: Parametric two-way mixed model repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to analyse the outcomes, using data collected from hand grip test, pinch grip test and sensation monofilament test. Nonparametric statistic Friedman test was used to analyse the score of questionnaires at week 1, week 5 and week 9. All statistic tests were set at a 0.05 significant level. The pairwise comparisons between interventions were tested with Least Significant Different test at 0.05 alpha level. Results: The main effect of symptoms severity score (P<0.01) and functional status score (P<0.01) of questionnaire, hand grip test (P<0.05) and monofilament test (P<0.01) showed significant difference across week 1, week 5 and week 9. The main effect result of pinch grip test (P>0.05) is not significant in both groups. Conclusions: There is evidence that the RWHO and SRWHO kept the wrist in neutral position and demonstrated effectiveness toward mild to moderate CTS patients in terms of scores of Self-Administered Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Questionnaire (Chinese version), sensory recovery and motor recovery of hand grip. The pinch grip force showed no significant improvement after either RWHO or SRWHO treatments. Both of the orthoses are effective in treating mild to moderate CTS patients.
Rights: All rights reserved
Access: restricted access

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