Effects of Kinesio tape on individuals with carpal tunnel syndrome: a randomized controlled study.
Wei-Han Chen, Willy Chou, Min Hsu and 6 others
PMID 39582988WHAT IT FOUND
In mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome, adding Kinesio tape to physical therapy improved grip strength more than physical therapy alone over 6 weeks, but physical therapy alone improved motor nerve timing more.
Both groups had less pain and better hand function.
Key findings
01After 6 weeks, both groups improved pain intensity, hand grip strength, symptom severity, and function during daily activities.
02When the 6-week changes were compared between groups, the tape group showed a significant hand grip strength change relative to the control group, and the control group showed a significant motor distal latency change relative to the tape group.
03The tape group improved distal sensory latency and sensory conduction velocity, particularly in the non-dominant hand, while the control group showed significant changes in sensory conduction velocity, motor distal latency, and motor amplitude with the dominant hand.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 27 participants and 40 hands were analysed, so the study is small. There was no placebo tape, and the paper identifies blinding of participants and raters as a needed methodological improvement. Each hand was treated as a separate unit, and people with CTS in both hands could receive different treatments on different hands, which could create crossover and expectation effects. No follow-up after the 6-week intervention was done, so the duration of improvement is unknown. The study included only mild to moderate CTS and excluded severe CTS, palm muscle atrophy, steroid injection in the past year, unsuitable skin, and wrist surgery history. All participants were right-hand dominant, so left-hand dominance was not represented.
Declared interests
The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and publication. The study was supported by the Chi-Mei Medical Center and Kaohsiung Medical University Joint Project, the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan, and the Research Center for Precision Environmental Medicine at Kaohsiung Medical University.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that Kinesio tape alone caused the improvement. The tape group also received heat therapy, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, ultrasound, and laser treatment, and the control group improved motor distal latency more than the tape group.