Trial reportBMC family practice2010
Randomised controlled trial of local corticosteroid injections for carpal tunnel syndrome in general practice.
Trial report in BMC family practice, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 30 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Non-surgical Treatment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Night Splint Versus Local Corticosteroid Infiltration: Clinical Randomized Trial
Efficacy of Dextrose Injections, Corticosteroids Injections and Surgical Release for Treatment of the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: a Prospective, Randomized, Double-blind Controlled Trial
Ultrasound-Guided Carpal Tunnel Infiltration: Comparison Between the Manual Method and a Robot-Assisted Method - A Pilot, Comparative, Randomized Study
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Steroid versus placebo injections and wrist splints in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.The Journal of hand surgery, European volume · 2024Pooled it
- A systematic review of steroid use in peripheral nerve pathologies and treatment.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Injection therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Local corticosteroid injection versus placebo for carpal tunnel syndrome.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Local injection therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome: a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Outcome Metrics in the Treatment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Systematic Review.Hand (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Pooled it
- A Bayesian network meta-analysis: Comparing the clinical effectiveness of local corticosteroid injections using different treatment strategies for carpal tunnel syndrome.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2015Pooled it
- Comparative Study of Ultrasound-Guided Corticosteroid Injection with Acupotomy Release Versus Injection Alone in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2025Trial
- Volume Matters in Ultrasound-Guided Perineural Dextrose Injection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Three-Arm Trial.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020Trial
- Platelet-rich plasma in treatment of patients with idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome.Clinical rheumatology · 2019Trial
- The clinical and cost-effectiveness of corticosteroid injection versus night splints for carpal tunnel syndrome (INSTINCTS trial): an open-label, parallel group, randomised controlled trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2018Trial
- Mechanical wrist traction as a non-invasive treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome: a randomized controlled trial.Trials · 2017Trial
- Adding corticosteroids to the pudendal nerve block for pudendal neuralgia: a randomised, double-blind, controlled trial.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2017Trial
- The clinical and cost effectiveness of steroid injection compared with night splints for carpal tunnel syndrome: the INSTINCTS randomised clinical trial study protocol.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2016Trial
- Comparison between the effects of progesterone versus corticosteroid local injections in mild and moderate carpal tunnel syndrome: a randomized clinical trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2015Trial
- Trial
- Ultrasound-guided versus landmark-guided corticosteroid injections for carpal tunnel syndrome: an overview and cross-sectional analysis of overlapping meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials.European radiology · 2026Article
- Ultrasound-Guided Hydrodissection for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with Bifid Median Nerve and Persistent Median Artery: An Imaging-Based Case Report with Alpha-2 Macroglobulin.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Review
- Ultrasound-Guided Interventions for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCarpal tunnel syndrome is caused by entrapment of the median nerve and results in pain, tingling and numbness in the wrist and hand. It is a common condition in general practice. Effectiveness of treatment by intracarpal corticosteroid injection has never been investigated in general practice. The objective of this study was to determine if corticosteroid injections for carpal tunnel syndrome provided by general practitioners are effective.
methodsIn this study 69 participants with a clinical diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome were recruited from 20 general practices. Short-term outcomes were assessed in a randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Long-term results were assessed in a prospective cohort-study of steroid responders. Participants were randomised to intracarpal injections of 1 ml triamcinolonacetonide 10 mg/ml (TCA) or 1 ml NaCl (placebo). Non-responders to NaCl were treated with additional TCA injections. Main outcomes were immediate treatment success, mean score of the Symptom Severity Scale (SSS) and Functional Status Scale (FSS) of the Boston carpal tunnel questionnaire, subjective improvement and proportion of participants with recurrences during follow-up. Duration of follow-up was twelve months.
resultsThe TCA-group (36 participants) had better outcomes than the NaCl-group (33 participants) during short-term assessment for outcome measures treatment response, mean improvement of SSS-score (the mean difference in change score was 0.637 {95% CI: 0.320, 0.960; p < 0.001}) and FSS-score (the mean difference in change score was 0.588 {95% CI: 0.232, 0.944; p = 0.002}) and perceived improvement (p = 0.01). The number to treat to achieve satisfactory partial treatment response or complete resolution of symptoms and signs was 3 (95% CI:1.83, 9.72).49% of TCA-responders (17/35) had recurrences during follow-up. In the group of TCA-responders without recurrences (51%, 18/35) outcomes for SSS-score and FSS-score deteriorated during the follow-up period of 12 months (resp. p = 0.008 and p = 0.012).
conclusionsCorticosteroid injections for CTS provided by general practitioners are effective regarding short-term outcomes when compared to placebo injections. The short-term beneficial treatment effects of steroid injections deteriorated during the follow-up period of twelve months and half of the cohort of steroid-responders had recurrences.
trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN53171398.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.