Helpful Information About Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)  is a neurological disorder that causes pressure on the median nerve, which runs from your forearm into the palm of your hand, and becomes pressed or squeezed at the wrist.

Carpal tunnel is the narrow passageway surrounded by bones and ligaments on the palm side of your hand. When the median nerve is compressed, you may feel numbness, tingling, and weakness in your hand and wrist. Your fingers can become swollen and useless. You might wake up and feel you need to “shake out” your hand or wrist.

Any pressure or compression of the wrist and carpal tunnel can irritate the median nerve, resulting in carpal tunnel syndrome.

Most patients start to notice gradually symptoms such as frequent numbness or tingling in their fingers, especially the thumb and the index and middle fingers. They may start  in one or both hands during the night. Your dominant hand is usually affected first and suffers the most severe issues.

Early Symptoms:

• Numbness, mostly during the night  
• Fingers feel useless or swollen
• A tingling sensation or pain in your fingers 

More Severe Symptoms:

• Daytime Tingling with certain movements –  talking on the phone, daily work activity or driving

• More severe pain – worse at night 
• Gradule loss of movement 

• Hand weakness – difficulty in grasping objects or doing other tasks

The causes of carpal tunnel syndrome can be anything that irritates your median nerve, like bone fractures or inflammation. In most of our patient cases, carpal tunnel is generally caused by a combination of overuse, repetitive motions, and keeping your hands and wrists in certain positions for prolonged periods of time.

Before recommending treatment, Dr. Pournaras will  conduct an in-depth examination to accurately diagnose your symptoms. He will perform a physical exam and review your medical history. In many cases, he may use additional testing like an X-ray or nerve conduction study.

Once it has been determined that you have carpal tunnel syndrome, 

The goal of these treatments is to relieve any pressure or inflammation that’s irritating the median nerve.

The goal of Carpal tunnel release surgery is to decompress the median nerve by dividing the transverse carpal ligament. There are two main surgical procedures to accomplish this. They are called open carpal tunnel release (OCTR) and endoscopic carpal tunnel release (ECTR).

Open Carpal Tunnel Release (OCTR)

 This is the traditional method – open release, in which Dr. Pournaras will open your wrist directly to do the surgery.

Endoscopic Carpal Tunnel Release (ECTR)

The other method  Endoscopic Carpal Tunnel Release, is where a thin, flexible tube that has a camera is put into your wrist through a tiny incision. The camera guides Dr. Pournaras to complete the surgery with thin tools put into the wrist through another small cut.

Surgery is recommended to our patients with severe symptoms such as pain, significant sleep interference, muscle weakness, and if you have not had any relief of your symptoms with at least 6-8 weeks of the non-surgical treatment options.

Carpal Tunnel Surgery has been proven very effective in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. It involves an incision in the palm of your hand and increasing the space for the nerve.This will release the pressure around the nerve, leading to improvement of your symptoms.