Purpose: To determine whether shock wave therapy could improve symptoms and hand function in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome.

Materials and methods: Medline, Embase, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, OpenGrey, CNKI, VIP, Wang Fang databases, and China Biological Medicine were searched, from inception to December 2019.

Results: Ten trials involving 433 patients (501 wrists) were included in this systematic review. The shock wave therapy was observed to have a significant effect on pain relief (MD: −0.60, 95% CI: −1.16 to −0.05, p = 0.03), syndrome alleviation (MD: −2.26, 95% CI: −3.24 to −1.27, p < 0.00001) and functional recovery (MD: −1.25 95% CI: −2.08 to −0.43, p = 0.003) among the carpal tunnel syndrome patients. As revealed by the subgroup analysis, radial shock wave therapy made a significant difference in pain relief, syndrome alleviation, and functional recovery (p < 0.05). Focused shock wave had no significant effect on pain relief, syndrome alleviation, and functional recovery (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Shock wave therapy could be conductive to improve syndrome and hand function for carpal tunnel syndrome patients.

• Implications for rehabilitation

• Shock wave therapy is beneficial for alleviating syndrome and improving hand function of carpal tunnel syndrome patients.

• Radial shock wave therapy seems superior to focused shock wave therapy on syndrome alleviation and functional recovery of hand in carpal tunnel syndrome patients.

Journal Reference