Mahmoud S. Asal, Mohamed H. Elgendy, Olfat I. Ali, and Amira A. Labib

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of contralateral neural mobilization, ipsilateral neural mobilization of the median nerve and conventional treatment on (CTS). Methods: forty-five patients from both genders diagnosed as unilateral mild or moderate CTS were randomly assigned into three equaled study groups, each one included 15 patients, each group received conventional treatment in the form of TENS, U.S and infra-red. The first group received contralateral neural mobilization in the form of upper limb tension test 1 (ULTT-1) plus conventional treatment, the second group received ipsilateral neural mobilization in the form of (ULTT-1) plus conventional treatment and the third group received only conventional treatment. Treatment in all groups was conducted for 3 sessions per week for 2 weeks. Pain level and functional level were measured by visual analogue scale (VAS) and Upper Extremity Functional Scale (UEFS), respectively. Results: The comparison between pretreatment and post-treatment results in all groups reported significant differences within each group and non-significant differences among the 3 groups. Conclusions: conventional treatment (TENS, U.S and infra-red) has the upper hand in treating CTS symptoms and both ipsilateral and contralateral neural mobilization have only a complementary effect to the conventional treatment effect.