Carpal Tunnel
Carpal tunnel syndrome is pain, tingling, or numbness in your hand because of pressure on the median nerve in your wrist. it ranges from mild discomfort or sensations to extreme pain, weakness and parasthesia. If you spend a lot of time doing activities that involve forceful or repetitive hand or wrist movement or use of vibrating equipment, you have an increased risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Compared to men, women are more predisposed to get carpal tunnel syndrome for the reason they have smaller carpal tunnels.
Health issues leading to CTS include diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, pregnancy, wrist injuries, repetitive hand motions such as typing and smoking etc. It may alter a person’s ability to work or do the activities of daily living. But it can be eliminated when given the correct treatment. Depending on the patient’s preference and the severity of the syndrome, treatment can either be surgical or non-surgical.
Non–Surgical Treatments
- Medications
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen can ease the swelling and pain.
- Oral diuretics can be taken to remove the excess water in the body that might be the cause of the swelling.
- Corticosteroids can be taken orally or injected such as prednisone.
- Exercise – strengthening and stretching exercise for the fingers wrist and hand are a good preventative strategy to decrease the possibility of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
- Acupuncture & Acupressure – Acupuncture and acupressure are the most effective therapies for pain management. This gives almost immediate relief and results are very impressive.
- Chiropractic treatment – It involve realignment of joints and bones by twisting, pulling, or pushing movements in the wrist and in the forearm, upper arm, shoulder, upper back, and neck.
- Yoga – it reduce pain and improve grip strength.
- Wrist splints – wearing a wrist splint at night may be enough to relieve symptoms. It keeps the wrist from bending and minimizes or prevents pressure on the median nerve.
- Icing – Icing the wrist for 10 minutes every couple of hours will help relieve the pain and also reduce swelling.
Surgical Treatment
Carpal tunnel release – Local anesthesia is used in splitting a cluster of tissue around the wrist to remove the compression on the median nerve.