Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
What is it?
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a progressively painful condition that involves the compression or pinching of the median nerve in your wrist. The median nerve controls movement and feeling in your thumb and first three fingers and once it becomes compressed it can often interfere with the person’s ability to use the wrist and hand.
Symptoms
The pressure or pinching of the nerve can be caused by swelling or any structure such as a bone or soft tissues that make the carpal tunnel, which the nerve runs through, smaller. In numerous cases it’s difficult to find one single cause, but many things such as illnesses, pregnancy, obesity, repetitive hand movements such as typing, wrist injuries, bone spurs and even smoking can cause a smaller carpal tunnel.
Treatment
Mild symptoms can often be treated with rest, ice and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDS). The sooner you start treating the symptoms the better the chances of preventing long-term damage to the nerve. Other recommendations may include, splinting or immobilizing the hand, steroid injections, and physical therapy. If these methods prove to be ineffective, surgery may be recommended to eliminate or remove the cause of pressure on the nerve.
If you are experiencing Hand & Wrist pain, weakness of the Hand & Wrist, stiffness of the Hand & Wrist or night time Hand & Wrist pain, give us a call 972-250-5700 or make an appointment now.