A simple 15-minute treatment could help patients avoid carpal tunnel surgery

A simple, steroid-free procedure could offer lasting relief for people struggling with carpal tunnel syndrome, potentially helping them avoid surgery. In a clinical trial involving 63 patients, researchers found that ultrasound-guided hydrodissection, which uses fluid to free a compressed nerve in the wrist, provided longer-lasting improvements in pain, numbness, and hand function than traditional steroid injections. A simple procedure that takes about 15 minutes could offer lasting relief to people with carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful condition that can cause numbness, tingling, and weakness in the hands. A new study suggests that the treatment, which uses ultrasound to guide an injection of ordinary saline around a compressed nerve, provides longer-lasting benefits than traditional steroid injections, without the risks associated with steroids.

The findings, published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), point to a promising alternative for patients whose symptoms have not improved with conventional treatments. Researchers say the minimally invasive technique could also help some patients delay or avoid surgery. Why Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Can Be So Difficult to Treat Carpal tunnel syndrome develops when the median nerve, which extends from the forearm into the hand, becomes compressed as it passes through a narrow channel in the wrist called