Everything You Need To Know About Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

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HAYAAT.PK

• Everything You Need To Know About Carpal Tunnel
  Syndrome

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• Youre working trying to focus and ignore the
  feeling of numbness and tingling sensation in
  your hand or wrist. The numbness remains there
  for sometime and suddenly a sharp excruciating
  pain shoots through your wrist and travels up
  your arm.  Sometimes it feels like needles or
  pins are continuously pricking you. The sensation
  is extremely uncomfortable and hinder your day to
  day activities if the condition persists.
  Luckily, the treatment for Carpal Tunnel can
  resolve the issue that causes this syndrome in
  first place. So, if you are experiencing the
  symptoms or you are just reading to get your
  hands on every bit of information, this article
  summarizes everything for you.
• What Is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
• Carpus a word derived from a Greek word Karpos
  meaning wrist. Carpal tunnel is a narrow tube in
  the wrist. This part of the wrist connects median
  nerve and tendons with hands and forearms. This
  part includes
• Carpal Bones that make up the bottom and sides of
  the tunnel and form a semi-cricle.
• Ligament, a strong tissue holding the tunnel
  together that makes up the top of the tunnel.
• Inside the tunnel are the median nerve and
  tendons. 
• Median nerve is responsible for receiving
  sensations from thumb, index and middle fingers
  of the hand and also giving strength to the base
  of thumb and index finger.
• Tendons are rope like structures which are
  responsible for connecting muscles in forearm to
  bones in hand and also allow the bending of
  fingers and thumbs.

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• Carpus Tunnel Syndrome is one of the most common
  issue affecting hand function which is caused
  when median nerve is compressed. This occurs when
  the median nerve suffers from inflammation when
  faced by constant repetitive movements such as
  long typing hours on keyboard, holding something
  for a long time etc. Anything that causes
  swelling or change in positioning of the tissue
  within carpal tunnel irritates median nerve and
  this leads to the development of sensations like
  tingling and numbness of thumbs and fingers. The
  small finger is usually not affected.
• Who Are At Risk?
• People who perform activities that involve
  repetitive use of finger. Activities that makes
  one more prone to carpal tunnel syndrome include
• High force activities
• Extreme movements of wrist
• Vibrations
• Many other factors can contribute to development
  of the syndrome
• Deformities of hand or wrist
• Wrist dislocation or fracture
• Tumor in carpal tunnel
• Arthritis
• Diabetes

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• Older age
• Pregnancy
• High Blood Pressure
• Thyroid abnormalities
• Lifestyle factors that can contribute to the
  progression of the symptoms include
• Smoking
• High salt intake
• High body Mass index
• Symptoms Of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
• Symptoms usually occur at the nerve path because
  median nerve is squeezed. Your hand may feel like
  it is has slept and you constantly drop objects.
  Other prominent symptoms include
• Numbness and tingling in thumbs and first three
  fingers
• Pain and burning sensation that travels up to the
  arm
• Wrist pain at night that interferes with your
  sleep
• Weakness in the hand muscles

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• If you feel like you are experiencing above
  symptoms, consult the best neurophysician to rule
  out the symptoms.
• Diagnosis
• It is very important to consult the doctors when
  you first notice continuous symptoms. One
  shouldnt wait for the symptoms or conditions to
  get worse because pain would become intolerable.
• Early detection and proper diagnosis are
  important to prevent lasting damage to median
  nerve.
• Diagnosis is done by following ways
• Doctor would ask for your medical history and
  physical examination of hands, arms, and
  shoulders help in determining if the discomfort
  the person is feeling is due to any strenuous
  daily activities or due to some underlying
  disorder. The wrist is examined for swelling,
  discoloration and tenderness. Each finger is
  examined for sensation and muscles are tested for
  strength.
• X-ray can also help in revealing the fractures,
  dislocations, arthritis and can detect other
  issues too which cause the nerve damage. 
• Carpal tunnel syndrome may be diagnosed by
  electrodiagnostic test. This measures the
  electrical activity of the nerves and muscles by
  simply assessing if nerves are able to send
  signals along other nerves or muscles.
  Electromyography is a special technique that is
  used in detection of electrical conduction of
  muscle fibers and it helps in determining any
  damage to median nerve. 
• Ultrasound may also be used to see the anomaly in
  the size of the median nerve.

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• Treatment Of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
• Carpal tunnel syndrome should be treated as early
  as possible. Consult the best neurophysician for
  the effective treatment.
• There are two types of treatments.
• Surgical treatments
• Non-surgical Treatments
• Non-surgical Treatments
• These include noninvasive processes.
• Splinting is an initial treatment that is taken. 
  A splint is usually worn at night. Splint is a
  medical equipment that is worn to keep the
  injured or effected body part to keep form moving
  and protect it from further damage.
• Avoiding such activities that may provoke
  symptoms. Take break during physical activities
  involving wrist and if your wrist is swollen,
  apply cool pack.
• Pain relieving drugs can ease drugs but wont
  treat the CTS itself.
• Your neurophysician can also prescribe you
  medicines for the treatment.
• Alternative therapies like Yoga can also help in
  reducing the pain and improve your symptoms.

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• Surgical treatment
• Sometimes when noninvasive procedures dont help,
  then doctors opt for the surgical procedures.
  Generally, surgery involves cutting the ligament
  surrounding the wrist to lessen pressure on the
  median nerve.
• Surgery is usually done under local or regional
  anesthesia. As cutting the ligament is required
  to lessen the pressure on the median nerve, there
  are two types of surgical procedures.
• Open release surgery is a traditional procedure.
  An incision is made in wrist and carpal ligament
  is cut to enlarge carpal tunnel. This procedure
  is usually done under local anesthesia. 
• Endoscopic surgery is a faster way and has less
  post-operative uneasiness than open surgery, but
  it poses further risks and complications. In this
  two incisions are made in wrist and palm, a
  camera is inserted which observes the nerve,
  ligament and tendons and then carpal ligament is
  cut. The ligament when grows back, it allows more
  space than before. Symptoms are relieved
  post-surgery, but full recovery from carpal
  tunnel surgery can take months. For healing, you
  may also need to modify your work pattern for
  weeks after the surgery.
• Recurrence of CTS after surgery is very rare.
  People usually have reported to feel completely
  normal post-surgery.
• To wrap up
• If you feel like you have symptoms of CTS,
  consult the doctor right away to rule out the
  symptoms. Dont wait for the pain to become
  aggressive or condition to get worsen.  Hayaat.pk
  can assist you in finding the best neurophysician
  in Lahore.