Natural, Traditional & Alternative Medicine

Biography

Biography: Leila Hashemi Chelavi

Abstract

Background and Purpose Phlebotomy has been broadly used as an assured and economical technique to tackle soft tissue lesions in ITM (Iranian Traditional Medicine), most Asian countries, Central Europe, and some parts of US. In this study, phlebotomy was used for the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) that is widely recognized as the most common neuropathy. This study aimed to investigate the effects of phlebotomy on the clinical and diagnostic findings of patients with CTS. Methods This is a randomized clinical trial. For this analysis, an entire of 70 hands with CTS were studied, aged 18– 60, and of every gender. The participants were divided into 2 groups: check and management. Within the management cluster, 35 were treated with routine night splint, and within the check cluster, the other 35 were treated with routine night splint in addition to phlebotomy. The variables of which we evaluated were: symptom severity, practical standing scale, distal median nerve sensory latency, and distal meidan nerve motor latency. The severity of symptoms and practical standing of patients were evaluated by Boston questionnaire, and the distal and motor latency were evaluated through the diagnostic NCV test. Results The results of the study demonstrated an incontestable improvement in symptom severity (p = 0.007) additionally a serious decrease in distal sensory latency (p = 0.006) of the check cluster (phlebotomy plus routine night split) as compared with the management cluster (routine night splint). Conclusions The results showed that the incorporation of phlebotomy treatment in an exceedingly routine therapy program would reduce the severity of symptoms and improve the distal sensory disturbance of the median nerve. Therefore, it is advised that phlebotomy, as a convenient and low‐cost complementary medicine technique, could be employed within the treatment of CTS.