What is carpal tunnel syndrome?

summary

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common peripheral nerve compression disease, and it is also the most common disease for hand surgeons. There are many non-surgical treatments for carpal tunnel syndrome, including brace immobilization and corticosteroid injection. If conservative treatment can not alleviate the symptoms of patients, surgical treatment should be considered. What is carpal tunnel syndrome? Next, I'd like to share my views with you.

What is carpal tunnel syndrome?

The incidence rate of carpal tunnel syndrome is higher in women than in men, but the reason is not clear. Common symptoms include paresthesia and / or numbness in the median innervated area (radial half of thumb, index finger, middle finger and ring finger). Nocturnal finger numbness is often the first symptom of carpal tunnel syndrome. Many patients experience nocturnal finger numbness. The discomfort of numbness of fingers in many patients can be relieved to a certain extent by changing the posture of upper limbs or shaking hands.

Patients engaged in certain activities during the day can also cause the aggravation of numbness of fingers, such as doing needlework, driving, holding a phone or reading books for a long time. In the early stage, some patients only felt numbness and discomfort in the tip of middle finger or middle ring finger, but in the later stage, they felt numbness and discomfort in the thumb, index finger, middle finger and radial half of ring finger.

Some patients may also have numbness or paresthesia of the forearm or even the whole upper limb, and even feel that these symptoms are the main discomfort. With the aggravation of the disease, the patient may have clear finger sensory loss or loss, abductor pollicis brevis and palmaris pollicis opposite muscle atrophy or weakness. The patient may have atrophy of the most radial muscle of thenar, inflexibility of thumb, reduction of pinch strength with other fingers, and even unable to complete the pinch action.

matters needing attention

Pay attention to avoid washing cold water during work, avoid cold stimulation and excessive stretching and bending force, and keep warm locally. It is helpful to prevent the occurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome to relax the wrist before and after labor and fully exercise the wrist joint. We should pay attention to prevent recurrence, to avoid long-term hand, wrist strength activities.