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Acupuncture experiences?

Posted , 6 users are following.

Tinabear
Tinabear

Hi all. Has anyone had acupuncture for their carpal tunnel problems? What were you experiences? Did it help?

My mum has carpal tunnel in both hands. She has done surgery on one hand, which has slightly improved it but only slightly. The operation was several months ago and she’s still not able to do much with both hands. Recently she put more pressure than normal on her operated hand and it resulted in a night of much pain all along her arm. 

I’m sure there must be something out there that can help with this ? I’m reluctant to have her get the other hand done now if there isn’t much improvement to be made. I’d rather her try all alternative options. 

She’s been having physio (being given excersises to do) they may be working, we’re not sure. 

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • jeremydpbland
    jeremydpbland Tinabear

    Posted

    There is one fairly good trial claiming a positive effect from acupuncture (published as two papers - a short term and a long-term follow-up) but this has not been replicated and other studies are unconvincing. The only things which are definitely known to help are splints, cortiocosteroid injection and surgery. If the response to surgery has been unimpressive on the first hand then the reason for that needs working out before embarking on a second operation - there are several possible explanations for failure. Dr J Bland
    • Tinabear
      Tinabear jeremydpbland

      Posted

      thank you very much for this response. the operated left hand is function with 4/10 muscle strength, while the un-operated right hand is at 2/10 muscle mobility. this is what the physio says based on testing each hand's strength. the right hand was about 2/10 before the operation. so there is some improvement but not that much.

      what are some of the reasons to why the operation may not have worked? and who would we need to approach to address this? the GP generally does not seem to know much. 

  • jeremydpbland
    jeremydpbland Tinabear

    Posted

    You can find a detailed discussion of how to analyse failed carpal tunnel surgery on my website if you can find it. I can't give you the URL on here because this website's software will block the posting. A bit of searching for me and carpal tunnel syndrome should get you to the right place. Muscle strength in the hand generally is not a good indicator for CTS I'm afraid. Dr Jeremy D P Bland

  • mari31158
    mari31158 Tinabear

    Posted

    Hi, I have severe carpal tunnel in my left hand & moderate in my right. Although I truly believe my right hand is more severe now than moderate. I tried acupuncture about a year ago. Unfortunately it didn’t help me at all. As a matter of fact to me acupuncture hurt more than it helped.  I can honestly say that I have tried almost everything available to try & help or ease my CTS. I even had surgery on my left hand, which didn’t work at all! It may work for your mum, everyone is different. She may have a successful outcome....so fingers crossed!! Good Luck

  • jim70956
    jim70956 Tinabear

    Posted

    Hi Tinebear.

    With regards to accupuncture. In my personal experience it has never worked for me, maybe a little due to the placebo theory and that was very short lived. I had never had it for CT but I did have it for pain relief whilst awaiting a hip operation and from rotator cuff damage to my shoulder.

    I had my right hand operated on for CT in September 2016 and was shown that my median nerve was very badly compressed due to me putting up with the symptoms for many years 30 approx. 

    My recovery took nearly Nine months for me to feel the real benefit of the operation and I have no regrets whatsoever in having it done. I still experience slight numbness in my thumb and index finger but It is nothing like the pain and loss of sleep I went through prior to the op.

    If Dr Bland is reading this, I have a question for him. Is there any statistical evidence that post op recovery time is relative to the time of enduring the symptoms.?.

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