Plagued by Hand and Wrist Pain? It Could Be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

It’s no mystery that a health issue in your hand and wrist can not only be uncomfortable, but highly disruptive, given how much you rely on your hands. 

One of the best examples of this is carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), which affects up to 5% of the general population, with women outpacing men by 3 to 1. In fact, if you’re dealing with pain, numbness, and/or tingling in your hand, it’s a good bet that you have CTS.

To explore this possibility further, the team at SOAR Spine and Orthopedics, which specializes in the entire musculoskeletal system, including your hands and wrists, takes a closer look at carpal tunnel syndrome.

Carpal tunnel syndrome and nerve compression

Nerve compression issues are common — think sciatica or a pinched nerve in your neck — and carpal tunnel syndrome is the most prevalent, affecting about 10 million Americans at any given time.

At the heart of carpal tunnel syndrome is nerve compression — something is pressing up against your median nerve, which can lead to sensory and functional challenges in your hand and wrist.

Your median nerve runs from your neck down the length of your arm. To reach your hand, this nerve travels through the carpal tunnel, which is in the underside of your wrist. This small, one-inch wide opening provides passage for your median nerve, as well as nine flexor tendons that control the movement of your fingers. So, it’s a crowded space.

With CTS, swelling in the membranes that surround the tendons or narrowing inside the tunnel can crowd an already tight space and pinch your median nerve. 

Signs of carpal tunnel syndrome

Given that your median nerve is a sensory nerve, you can bet that any nerve compression leads to some hard-to-ignore symptoms, such as:

• Pain, which can range from a dull ache to sharp shock-like sensations
• Numbness
• Tingling
• Weakness
• Clumsiness (loss of fine motor skills)

These symptoms often affect your thumb, as well as your pointer, middle, and half of your ring finger (sensation in your pinkie gets controlled by other nerves).

Who gets carpal tunnel syndrome?

We mentioned that women are about three times as likely as men to develop CTS, and there are a couple of reasons for this. First, women have smaller carpal tunnels and, second, hormone fluctuations can lead to inflammation, which explains why CTS is common in pregnancy.

Outside of gender, other risk factors for CTS include:

• Heredity
• Overuse 
• Sleeping with your wrist crooked
• Pre-existing health conditions like diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis

While many people assume that CTS originates from working with keyboards, this link is more complex. Yes, working at a keyboard with your wrists in an awkward position can contribute to CTS, but we haven't uncovered a definitive link.

Finding relief for your hand and wrist pain

The good news is that we can remedy carpal tunnel syndrome without surgery in most cases. Rest, splinting, and nerve gliding exercises work very well for reducing nerve compression and are often the only steps needed for many of our patients. And anti-inflammatory medications, such as ibuprofen, are often effective for managing the pain.

If your symptoms don't resolve with these conservative treatments, we can try steroid injections. 

If these don’t work, then we can process a surgical procedure in which we release the ligament that forms the roof of your carpal tunnel to create more space.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, your first step is to visit us for a definitive diagnosis. To get started, contact us today at one of our offices in Santa Clara or Redwood City, California, to schedule an evaluation.