A literature review of manual physical therapy in the conservative treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome: validation from Physical Therapy Guidelines, 2nd edition

Abstract

The second edition of Physical Therapy Guidelines was completed and published in October 2021. It includes “physical therapy guidelines for physical therapy of wrist and hand dysfunction” and includes a clinical question on carpal tunnel syndrome as a target disease. The most common conservative physical therapy interventions for carpal tunnel syndrome are manual physical therapy interventions with nerve and tendon gliding exercises and carpal bone mobilization. The effectiveness of this approach is evidenced by improvements in pain and sensory disturbance, which reduce the psychological burden factor of the patient. However, a lot of this evidence is still very weak, and it is hoped that future high-quality research will be conducted. We hope that this guideline will be widely used to further improve the quality of physical therapy as well as the implementation of physical therapy above a certain level in daily clinical situations.