Surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

When you have tingling pain, numbness, and weakness in the thumbs and ring fingers, it could be carpal tunnel syndrome. It is not a disease; rather, it can be said to be a condition of medial nerve compression. This condition is usually three times more common in women than men.

Carpal Tunnel Surgery is one of the most common hand conditions that require surgery if the symptoms worsen.

What Does Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Mean?

Carpal tunnel syndrome is simply due to pressure on the median nerve in the carpal tunnel, which is located in the wrist joint, causing burning pain in the thumb and all other fingers except the pinky.

Why Median Nerve Compression in Carpal Tunnel?

The carpal tunnel is the tunnel in the wrist and it is a narrow path made of the bone and ligaments through which the median nerve passes. The wrist contains major 3 nerves: Radial, Median, and Ulnar, innervated over the hand.

 The median nerve usually supplies the muscle and skin of the thenar palm, thumbs, index finger, and half of the middle finger.

When there is a lot of movement and activity, the surrounding tissues will swell. The tunnel will then get squeezed, pinching the median nerve and thus causing your symptoms.

What are carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms and signs?

Usually, carpal tunnel Symptoms appear in the morning but may happen at other times too. Symptoms will worsen with hand activities grasping, driving, and washing items. Weakness while gripping objects with hands

• Pain or numbness on both hands or single hand
• “Pins and needles” feeling in the fingers and fingertips
• The feeling of Swollen fingers
• Burning or tingling in the fingers, especially the thumb and the index and middle fingers, and sometimes half of the ring fingers as well
• Pain and numbness increase and worse at night, interrupting sleep
• feeling of dropping an object from the hand
• increase pain and numbness while working in cold water

Carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms are often at the time of pregnancy

In females, the Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome often occur at the time of pregnancy and they are improved after delivery. Such patients are highly prone to the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome later.

When Carpal Tunnel Syndromes Need Surgery?

Long-time symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome can weaken the muscles around your hands and wrists. And can get worse if it is not treated.

You need to know when to get surgery.  If you might have the following situation, your doctor would suggest surgery:

• Treatment with  braces doesn’t lower pain
• Treatment with corticosteroids  and pain medicines don’t help
• If the tingling sensation, pain, and numbness don’t go away or get better in 6 months.
• if your hand gets difficult to grip, grasp, or pinch objects
• If the muscle in the palm atrophy (decreases the size of palm muscle)

Other Treatments before doing carpal tunnel syndrome surgery

Before doing surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome surgery, conservative treatment can also be done. Following are some of the treatment principles that can be done.

• Splinting your affected hand
  • Splinting will help to heal inflammation of the nerve.  
• Anti-inflammatory medicines
• these medicines help to reduce the inflammation and pain
  • Painkillers
  • will reduce the inflammation that will reduce pain
• Changing lifestyle and working habits
  • improves ergonomics that will help ease symptoms
• Exercise and Physiotherapy
  • Strengthening and stretching exercises are helpful and should be supervised by a physical or occupational therapist.
• steroid injection
  • steroid injection also reduces inflammation which will reduce the burning sensation and pain
  • PRP Injection
  • Platelet-rich plasma injection for carpal tunnel syndrome is beneficial

Dr.Saroj Kumar Suwal is an Orthopedic surgeon in Nepal. He is an expertise in treating carpal tunnel syndrome in conservative as well as surgery

Physiotherapy for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Here is the video for doing the physiotherapy for carpal tunnel. Dr. Suwal always advised do physiotherapy only after the pain subsides. so you have to do physio for the carpal tunnel syndrome after pain decrease only.