Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common injury that causes pain in the wrist and hand. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when there’s pressure on the median nerve, which runs through your wrist. This pressure can cause tingling, numbness or weakness in your fingers, hands and arms. It can also make it harder to move your thumb away from your palm (known as “hyperpronation”). You may not notice any symptoms at first, but over time they get worse: eventually you might find it difficult to use your hand normally because of the pain.
What Is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common injury that causes pain in the wrist and hand. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when there’s pressure on the median nerve, which runs through your wrist. This pressure can cause tingling, numbness or weakness in your fingers, hands and arms. It can also make it harder to move your thumb away from your palm (known as “hyperpronation”). You may not notice any symptoms at first, but over time they get worse: eventually you might find it difficult to use your hand normally because of the pain.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common injury that causes pain in the wrist and hand. The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway at the base of your hand, which houses tendons and ligaments that connect bones to muscles. The median nerve runs through this passageway, too, and can become irritated or swollen due to swelling around it.
When the median nerve becomes irritated or swollen in this way, it can cause pain along its pathway on both sides of your forearm (such as where your thumb attaches), as well as numbness in part of your palm and fingers.
Who Gets Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
- If you have a job that requires repetitive hand motions, you may be at risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. This includes many types of manufacturing, assembly line jobs and assembly-line food service workers.
- People who have diabetes are also at risk for carpal tunnel syndrome because diabetes can cause nerve damage in the hands and feet. The swollen tissue around the median nerve can put pressure on it, which causes pain and numbness in the hand and fingers.
- Other conditions associated with carpal tunnel syndrome include osteoarthritis (a condition where cartilage between joints wears away), rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune disease) or hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid gland).
Symptoms
You may experience the following symptoms:
- Pain, numbness or weakness in the thumb, index finger and middle finger
- Tingling or burning sensation in your hand that feels worse when you wake up in the morning
- A loss of grip strength (for example, dropping objects easily)
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common cause of wrist and hand pain. Other causes include arthritis, tendinitis, and carpal bone fracture. The pain from carpal tunnel syndrome may radiate to the forearm, elbow or shoulder.
If you have numbness or tingling in your fingers, thumb and palm that’s worse at night (or all day) compared with when your hands are warm and elevated above heart level (this should be checked by a doctor), then you may have carpal tunnel syndrome.
There’s no specific test for diagnosing carpal tunnel syndrome other than an exam by a doctor who will also ask questions about your medical history before making a diagnosis based on their own experience with similar cases in the past.
Prevention
If you do repetitive hand motions, it’s important to take frequent breaks. Stretch your hands and wrists, and use a wrist brace if they feel sore or stiff.
If your job requires you to use a keyboard or mouse for eight hours or more per day, consider using a gel mouse pad instead of a hard surface. Gel pads help reduce stress on the bones in your hand by absorbing some of their weight while also making it easier to control movement with less effort from muscles in the forearm.
Avoid lifting heavy objects with just one hand because this puts too much pressure on carpal tunnel syndrome-prone tendons at the base of fingers like those found in thumb and forefinger—which are known as extrinsic muscles due to their distance from forearm bones (intrinsic).
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common injury that causes pain in the wrist and hand. The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway at the base of your hand, which houses tendons and ligaments that connect bones to muscles. The median nerve runs through this passageway, too, and can become irritated or swollen due to swelling around it.
When the median nerve becomes irritated or swollen in this way, it can cause pain along its pathway on both sides of your forearm (such as where your thumb attaches), as well as numbness in part of your palm and fingers.
Conclusion
A common question we hear is, “What can I do about carpal tunnel syndrome?” The first thing to know is that there’s no cure for carpal tunnel syndrome—the symptoms will go away when the pressure from your nerves on your wrist decreases. But you can help relieve the pain by doing a few things: taking medicine prescribed by your doctor, stretching and strengthening your hand and wrist muscles (including those around the thumb), wearing splints at night if needed to prevent nighttime clenching of your fist; resting as much as possible (but not too much). If these treatments don’t work after three months or so, then surgery may be an option for some people who have severe cases and need relief right away!