Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - Don't Lose Sleep Over It

 Carpal tunnel syndrome has become one of the leading causes of loss of work worldwide. The intense pain and tingling in hand can leave us crippled. And piling on your misery, the pain worsens at night. You can't work during daytime, and cannot sleep at night. Can it be worse?


Yes, if neglected. With time your thumb muscles become weak, and have difficulty in holding onto objects. With time you will notice that your palm becomes flat towards the base of thumb. You basically lose our evolutionary feature, that made us humans superior to our primate ancestors, functions of our thumb.


Our thumb is one of the most unique human tool. It helps us in our grip, writing, buttoning up and practically in anything that we can imagine doing with our hands. Our ability to oppose thumb to all fingers helps us in pinching and gripping. Basically our thumb functions in a direction perpendicular to the direction of fingers, which makes our daily life easy.


The muscles that drive our thumb are supplied by Median nerve. This nerve passes through a closed space in our wrist, which is bounded by wrist bones on one side and a though ligament on the other. This closed space is the Carpal tunnel. If this space further narrows down, it will reduce the breathing space for the nerve as it passes from the forearm to the wrist. Pressure on this nerve leads to all the problems mentioned above.


If your work requires you to do repeated hand movements, then you are prone for it. Prolonged use of keyboard may cause hand pain. If you use tools causing lot of vibration, like drilling, then you are vulnerable. If you are hypothyroid, suffer from Rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, had wrist trauma, you are at increased risk for carpal tunnel syndrome. This affects females more, and pregnancy can aggravate the symptoms. These conditions may cause your small joints at wrist or soft tissues in carpal tunnel to swell up and reduce the limited available space within this canal.


Just as the underlying cause and pathophysiology is simple to understand, treatment is also straightforward. You just have to increase the space inside the Carpal tunnel. You have to seek early medical advice, as prolonged pressure can lead to some permanent damage to the nerve. Early in the disease process, taking breaks timely at work, wrist exercises can help you prevent progression. Using a wrist splint at night will help you with pain relief. Aggravated symptoms during pregnancy will become better once you deliver. With severe compression, the canal can be expanded by releasing the tough ligamentous roof of the canal. Surgery is simple, with minimal risks. Surgery takes roughly 45 minutes, and is done under local anaesthesia. You can talk to your doctor, as he frees up your median nerve. You can watch your carpal tunnel get expanded on a monitor, if you withstand a little cut and your surgeon's permission. You will be discharged after a couple hours, just with an analgesic for surgical pain and some cold packs. You will return to your work, even before you notice it.





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