Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Doubtless, we have all heard of carpal tunnel syndrome, but what exactly is carpal tunnel syndrome, what causes the condition, and how can it be treated? Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a condition that can cause pain, numbness, and tingling in the hands, fingers, wrists, and forearms.

The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway in the wrist formed from bone and ligament. A nerve that controls the feeling in your thumb and the fingers of your hand except for the pinky, known as the median nerve, passes through the carpal tunnel. When injury or disease causes inflammation in the wrist it can result in the carpal tunnel becoming constricted. In turn, this places pressure on the median nerve, leading to pain and numbness in the hands and fingers.

As humans, we use our hands and fingers to perform a multitude of tasks on a regular basis. If you are suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, you know just how incapacitating this condition can be. Fortunately, there are treatments that can help alleviate the symptoms of CTS. Find out how the Tampa neurosurgeons at Florida Surgery Consultants can use carpal tunnel release surgery to treat your symptoms and provide lasting relief.

Most Common Causes of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

The symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome are brought on when the carpal tunnel in the wrist tightens and puts pressure on the median nerve. The median nerve runs from your forearm through the carpal tunnel to your hand. Not only does the median nerve provide feeling to the palm side of your thumb, pointer, middle, and ring fingers, but it also controls the motor function of the muscles around the base of your thumb.

The carpal tunnel can narrow for a number of reasons, such as injury or disease. Often carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by a combination of factors acting together to place pressure on the median nerve. Some of the most common causes of carpal tunnel syndrome include:

Traumatic injuries
Wrist fractures
Sprains
Rheumatoid arthritis
Repeated use of vibrating hand tools
Development of a cyst or tumor within the carpal tunnel
Overactive pituitary gland
Underactive thyroid gland
Fluid retention in the wrist during pregnancy or menopause

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Symptoms

The symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome can be extremely debilitating, making simple everyday tasks with your hands painful and difficult. Many people do not even realize they have CTS at first as the symptoms tend to come on gradually, getting worse with time. These symptoms are usually felt in the hands, fingers, wrists, or forearms and can include:

Pain
Numbness, weakness, and tingling
Decreased motor control in the fingers
The sensation of swollen fingers or hands

As carpal tunnel syndrome progresses, it can cause a greater loss of feeling and strength in the fingers and hands. This can make grabbing objects, such as a phone, cooking utensils, or pens more difficult. Another issue people with CTS face is the inability to feel hot or cold temperatures in their fingers. Without the ability to feel if surfaces are too hot or too cold, people are more likely to burn or otherwise injure their hands and fingers.

How To Prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

The best way to combat carpal tunnel syndrome is to try and prevent CTS before it becomes a serious issue. If you have noticed the beginning symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, the following tips could help you prevent symptoms from getting worse.

Rest

If you are starting to experience the early symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, a great way to help prevent symptoms from getting worse is to allow your hands more time to rest. People who do a lot of work with their hands should especially try to give their hands a break from time to time. Try allowing for a few minutes of rest every hour. This can help improve pain and avoid worsening symptoms.

Maintain a Neutral Wrist Position

Maintaining a neutral wrist position is a great way to avoid putting the median nerve under further pressure. If you suffer from CTS, try to keep your wrist or wrists in a neutral position as often as possible. Avoid activities that require flexing or twisting your wrists for extended periods of time.

The positions in which your wrists are held while you sleep can also have an impact on your CTS symptoms. Avoid sleeping positions that place extra pressure on your wrists, such as sleeping on your stomach with your hands underneath you.

Avoid Repetitive Actions

Performing repetitive actions with your hands or wrists can aggravate your pain and make symptoms worse. Instead, try alternating hands to perform a task so that the same hand does not repeat the action consistently. Even minor repetitive actions can exacerbate an injury.

Be Careful With Your Grip

The way you grip an object can aggravate your carpal tunnel syndrome. When possible, try to use your whole hand and all your fingers to grab or pick up objects and avoid grabbing or pinching objects with only your thumb and index finger.

Slow and Steady is Key

Quick, forceful movement of the wrist can irritate an existing injury or cause inflammation within the carpal tunnel. To prevent CTS from getting worse, try to avoid moving your wrists too quickly, or performing actions that require a lot of force from your hands.

Strengthen Your Wrists

If you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, it can often cause the muscles in your wrists and hands to weaken. However, working with a physical therapist to improve strength and mobility in your wrists, hands, and fingers can prevent CTS from progressing. A physical therapist can provide you with exercises that are safe and help with pain management without the risk of further injury.

Treatment Options for Advanced Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

If pain or symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome have advanced to an unbearable point without any sign of improvement, it may be time to consider more comprehensive treatment. Carpal tunnel release surgery is a surgical procedure to release the pressure being placed on the median nerve by the carpal tunnel.

There are two main options patients have when it comes to carpal tunnel release surgery: open or endoscopic surgery. Both forms of the procedure involve surgically cutting the ligament that surrounds the carpal tunnel. The cut ligament allows the median nerve more space within the pathway of the carpal tunnel, relieving pressure.

However, each procedure uses a different approach to gain access to the carpal tunnel:

Open Surgery: To perform an open carpal tunnel release surgery, a surgeon will make a 2-inch incision from the wrist to the palm to gain access to the carpal tunnel.
Endoscopic Surgery: With endoscopic surgery, a surgeon will make a small incision, around a half-inch, in the wrist or arm. Next, a tiny camera and small surgical tools are inserted through the incision and used to cut the ligament.

Both surgeries are effective at relieving pressure on the median nerve and allow the severed ligament to grow back together with more room within the carpal tunnel. The difference is the recovery time for each procedure.

Recovery time for an endoscopic carpal tunnel release is often much faster than that of open surgery. Endoscopic carpal tunnel release surgery can be performed as an outpatient procedure, allowing patients to go home the same day as surgery. Another advantage of endoscopic surgery is less pain from the procedure itself.

At Florida Surgery Consultants in Tampa, FL, our staff of experienced neurosurgeons specializes in performing endoscopic procedures. Speak with a neurosurgeon today to see if surgery could help relieve your CTS symptoms.

Should You Consider Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery?

Minor pain or tingling from carpal tunnel syndrome alone should not be cause for you to seek surgical treatment. If you are experiencing symptoms of CTS, your doctor will most likely recommend attempting 6 to 12 weeks of non-surgical treatment options first, such as pain medication or physical therapy.

However, should your symptoms fail to improve with non-surgical treatments, and your symptoms have advanced to the point you are unable to perform daily tasks and your sleep is interrupted, it may be time to consider surgery. Surgery can help prevent CTS from causing permanent nerve and muscle damage.

Schedule A Carpal Tunnel Surgery Consultation

If you suffer from advanced carpal tunnel syndrome in Florida and non-surgical treatments have failed to improve your symptoms, you may be a candidate for carpal tunnel release surgery. You can trust in the skilled and experienced staff at Florida Surgery Consultants to guide you through the surgery process and get you back to performing daily tasks without pain or tingling in your hands.

Think you are ready to learn about your surgical treatment options for carpal tunnel syndrome? Speak with a board-certified neurosurgeon today by calling us at (888) 411-6824 or schedule your consultation online by filling out the form on this page.