It can start slowly enough — perhaps you feel some odd sensations in your thumb or your pointer finger. All too quickly, these symptoms can become more severe, and you can’t feel much of anything in certain fingers. While feeling nothing might not seem like a problem, it certainly can be with your hands, which you rely on for fine motor skills.
In most cases, these symptoms point toward carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), which affects up to 10 million Americans at any given time, with women outpacing men three to one.
At Johnston Pain Management, our experienced team of musculoskeletal and pain management specialists has extensive experience in carpal tunnel syndrome, and here’s what we want you to know.
Your carpal tunnel is located in the underside of your wrist, and it’s formed by small carpal bones on three sides, and a transverse carpal ligament provides the roof. In total, this tunnel is about an inch wide, yet this small space needs to accommodate:
The median nerve controls muscle movement around the base of your thumb and provides sensation to your thumb, pointer finger, middle finger, and the inside of your ring finger.
The flexor tendons that travel through your carpal tunnel are encapsulated by membranes called synovium. If these tissues become inflamed, it can crowd the space inside your carpal tunnel and press against your median nerve.
As well, if there’s any injury, arthritis, or changes to this space, the same issue can crop up — crowding and nerve compression.
When this nerve compression occurs, CTS has set in, and you can experience:
Bear in mind that CTS symptoms can travel in the opposite direction, up your arm to your shoulder.
We also want to point out that symptoms are often worse at night, and patients complain of losing sleep thanks to CTS.
The good news is that if we confirm you have CTS, there are many steps we can take to reduce nerve compression in your wrist and relieve your symptoms.
We prefer to start out conservatively with:
If these measures fall short, we can get more aggressive and administer a corticosteroid injection, which should make quick work of the inflammation so your median nerve can function correctly.
If an interventional injection doesn’t do the trick and you’re still struggling with CTS, we can try a minor surgery in which we release the transverse carpal ligament to create more space in your carpal tunnel.
As you can see, we have plenty of options, and we’re confident that we can help you get through CTS as quickly as possible.
To figure out the best path forward for your carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms, please contact us at one of our three conveniently located offices in Jacksonville, Hampstead, or New Bern, North Carolina, to schedule an appointment.
