120 women were randomly assigned to receive either physical therapy utilizing manual therapy consisting of desensitizing the central nervous system or surgical treatment for the management of carpal tunnel syndrome. The purpose of this study was to determine whether physical therapy involving manual therapy produced comparable patient outcomes in terms of pain and function compared to surgical treatment, evaluated over the duration of 12 months. The results of this study found physical therapy to significantly improve pain and function at the 1 and 3-month follow-up compared to surgical treatment, but this difference in improvement was no longer observed between groups at the 6 and 12-month follow-up. Additionally, physical therapy was found to have no significant influence on the severity of symptoms and self-perceived improvement throughout the duration of the entire follow-up period.