Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: What You Need to Know:

Some of the factors that can increase the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome are:

• Genetics: This may play a big role. Some people may have a smaller carpal tunnel or different anatomy that reduces the room for the nerve — and these features can be inherited.

• Hand use: Doing the same hand and wrist movements or activities for a long time may irritate the tendons in the wrist, leading to swelling that squeezes the nerve.

• Hand and wrist posture: Doing activities that require extreme bending or straightening of the hand and wrist for a long time can raise the pressure on the nerve.

• Pregnancy: Hormonal changes during pregnancy can lead to swelling that presses on the nerve.

• Health problems: Diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroid gland problems are some of the conditions that are linked to carpal tunnel syndrome.

Signs & symptoms  of carpal tunnel syndrome  - 

• Feeling numb, tingling, burning, or pain — mainly in the thumb and the first three fingers. This can be disturbing for sleep at night.

• Feeling occasional electric-like shocks that spread to the thumb and the first three fingers

• Feeling pain or tingling that may move up the arm to the shoulder

• Having difficulty and clumsiness in using the hand — this may affect the ability to do fine tasks such as buttoning clothes etc.

• Dropping things — because of weakness, numbness, or a loss of sense of where the hand is in space .Usually, the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome start slowly, without a clear cause. Many patients notice that their symptoms come and go at first. But as the condition gets worse, symptoms may happen more often or last longer.Symptoms are very common at night. Because many people bend their wrists while sleeping, symptoms may wake up the patients from sleep. During the day, symptoms often happen when someone keep something in the hand for a long time with the wrist bent forward or backward, such as when using a phone, driving, or reading a book.Many patients find that moving or shaking their hands makes their symptoms better.

Treatments of carpal tunnel syndrome:

When the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome is showing, the patient should treat it. In the early stages, patients may be able to get rid of the problem by doing some simple things for themselves ,such as:

• Rest the hands more often.

• Stay away from activities that make symptoms worse.

• Use cold packs to lower swelling. Other ways to treat carpal tunnel syndrome include wrist splinting, medications and surgery. Splinting and other mild treatments are more likely to work if the symptoms are only mild to moderate and come and go for less than 10 months.

Wrist splinting: Wearing a splint that keeps the wrist from moving while  sleep can help ease nighttime symptoms of tingling and numbness. The splint can also prevent daytime symptoms even if only wear it at night.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). NSAIDs:such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, and others), may help reduce pain from carpal tunnel syndrome for a short time.

Corticosteroids: Doctor may inject a corticosteroid like cortisone into the carpal tunnel to ease pain. Sometimes, they uses an ultrasound to help guide the injections.Corticosteroids lower inflammation and swelling, which reduces pressure on the median nerve. Corticosteroid pills are not as effective as corticosteroid injections for treating carpal tunnel syndrome.

If rheumatoid arthritis or another inflammatory arthritis causes carpal tunnel syndrome, then treating the arthritis may help with the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. But this is not certain.

Hydrodissection in carpal tunnel syndrome:

Nerve hydrodissection is a medical procedure that loosens the scar tissue around a nerve. The nerve is located using ultrasound and then a needle with medication is guided by ultrasound around the nerve to separate the nerve from any tissue that may be squeezing or trapping the nerve.

Hydrodissection can help treat carpal tunnel syndrome, according to studies, and the amount of the injection can affect how well it works. In one study, injections that used more fluid had better results, and the kind and dose of the steroid did not matter for the results.