OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of manual therapy, including neurodynamic techniques, compared with no treatment on overall health status (OHS) in patients with mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). METHODS: The study included 189 patients with CTS who were randomly assigned to the manual therapy (MT) group (including the use of neurodynamic techniques) or to the control group (CG; without therapy). The CTS diagnosis was made on the basis of nerve conduction studies and clinical examinations. Overall health status was assessed using the RAND 36-Item Short Form Health Survey. Therapy in the MT group was conducted twice weekly (20 therapy sessions). The CG had no therapy. RESULTS: A baseline assessment revealed no group differences in the physical and mental components of OHS (in all cases p > 0.05). There were also no significant differences in the Physical Component Summary or Mental Component Summary on the RAND 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (p > 0.05). Immediately after therapy, analysis of variance revealed differences in the physical and mental components in the MT group (in all cases p < 0.001) and no differences in the CG (in all cases p > 0.05). After therapy, analysis of variance also revealed differences in Physical Component Summary and Mental Component Summary in the MT group (in both cases p < 0.001) and no differences in the CG (in both cases p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Manual therapy, including neurodynamic techniques, had a positive effect on OHS in this group of individuals with CTS.
Reprinted from the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics with copyright permission from the National University of Health Sciences.

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