What is carpal tunnel?
The carpal tunnel is the small channel of bones in your wrist. It's a rigid passageway for your median nerve — the main forearm nerve — and the tendons that control your thumb and fingers. The carpal tunnel opens at your wrist, where the transverse carpal ligament stretches tightly across the bones.
The transverse carpal ligament and other wrist tissues can pinch or compress the median nerve within the carpal tunnel’s confined space, leading to carpal tunnel syndrome.
What are the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome?
Carpal tunnel syndrome affects the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and ring fingers. Some of the symptoms you may notice include:
- Numbness
- Tingling
- Weakening grip
- Dropping objects
- Burning
- Aching or pain
Symptoms are sporadic in many cases, at least in the beginning. If untreated, your carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms can happen frequently or even constantly.
Many carpal tunnel syndrome sufferers have severe symptoms at night, which may happen if you bend your wrist as you sleep.
Who can get carpal tunnel syndrome?
Anyone can suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, but it's prevalent in women and older adults. Possible contributing factors can include:
- Inherited bone structure
- Regular repetitive hand use
- Hormone changes during pregnancy
- Rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, or thyroid dysfunction
Usually, several factors combine to trigger carpal tunnel syndrome.
How do you treat carpal tunnel syndrome?
The treatment approach varies according to how serious your symptoms are and the type of tissue damage you have inside your wrist and hand. Untreated carpal tunnel can cause permanent nerve damage, so it's important to treat the condition as quickly as possible.
Conservative treatments
In the early stages of carpal tunnel syndrome, when your symptoms are still minor, simple changes can potentially ease your symptoms. These may include a wrist brace, special wrist exercises, activity modification, and oral anti-inflammatory medication.
Injections
If conservative changes don't help, cortisone injections could dramatically reduce your swelling and pain.
Surgery
For severe carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms that persist after non-surgical treatment, your ROC Orthopedics doctor may recommend surgery like carpal tunnel release. This surgery can relieve your symptoms and prevent long-term complications like nerve damage.
In carpal tunnel release, your surgeon cuts the transverse carpal ligament and creates extra space in your carpal tunnel. Wherever possible, the ROC Orthopedics surgeons perform this surgery in their outpatient surgery center using minimally invasive techniques.
ROC Orthopedics can help with your carpal tunnel symptoms, whether they’re infrequent or disabling.
Book your appointment at ROC Orthopedics by calling the office or scheduling online.
