Table 2.

Effective Nonsurgical Treatments for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Treatment	Initial Success	Long-Term Success	Evidence	Advantages	Disadvantages
Local corticosteroid injection	20/24 (86%) responded	Within 1 year, 50% required surgery	Systematic review³³; 4 RCTs^17,^20,^23,²⁴	Effective symptom relief; some patients may not progress to surgery	Local steroid affords only temporary relief
Oral steroid	Significant short-term symptom reduction	Unknown	2 RCTs^16,²²	Effective short-term symptom relief; some patients may not progress to surgery	Potential adverse reactions to oral corticosteroids
		Waning of effect over 8 weeks
					Less effective than steroid injection³⁰