Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a progressive disease involving the first three fingers of one or both hands. It manifests itself with pain, numbness and weakness as a result of the median nerve, located in the middle of the wrist and distributed to the first 3 fingers, under pressure.

At what frequency and ages does carpal tunnel syndrome occur?

It is more common in women between the ages of 40 and 50.

Causes of carpal tunnel syndrome 

People with a structurally narrow wrist canal are prone to the appearance of clinical symptoms. It can be seen more frequently than normal conditions in obese, alcohol drinkers, diabetes and vascular diseases. Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by increased pressure in the canal. This pressure depends on the position of the hand. Chronic compression may occur after fractures around the hand and wrist. Infection or thickening of the beam sheaths causes mechanical narrowing of the canal. Tumors of the border sheath, infections of the palms reveal signs of median nerve compression. Mechanical causes at work play an active role in most of the cases. Frequent repetition of certain movements is associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpenters, tennis players, those who often wash dishes with their hands, drivers and similarly those who are engaged in repetitive movements of the wrist are more prone. It is most often seen in men engaged in the butchery profession. It occurs in women during pregnancy. This situation is temporary. It returns to normal within a few weeks after birth. It can also be found in people with hypothyroidism. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome has a role in some other diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, uremia, amyloidosis, vascular anomalies, Tendonitis are some of them. It has a role in the occurrence of some other diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, uremia, amyloidosis, vascular anomalies, Tendonitis are some of them. It has a role in the occurrence of some other diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, uremia, amyloidosis, vascular anomalies, Tendonitis are some of them.

Carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms 

Patients wake up with a feeling of swelling and numbness in the whole hand a few hours after falling asleep at night. The fingers are stiff, the patient feels his hands swollen and tense; but in reality, no objective change is observed. Patients shake and rub their hands, often getting out of bed and are soon relieved. Sometimes, recurrent numbness occurs many times in one night and causes serious sleep disturbance in patients. Not rarely, numbness in the hand goes up to ten arms, shoulders and neck. In jobs where hands are used a lot, complaints increase in housewives after washing a lot of laundry and cleaning. In the following period, loss of strength and melting of the palm muscles occur.

How is carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosed?

When the wrist is hit with a reflex hammer, an electric shock, that is, a shock-like response, is obtained in the patient’s fingers. This is known as Tinel’s sign. A definitive diagnosis can be made with an EMG test. When the electrophysiological and clinical findings are evaluated well, other examinations are of little use, but magnetic resonance imaging may be useful in some special cases.

Carpal tunnel syndrome treatment

CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT

We see that night rest wristbands, which keep the wrist in a neutral position but allow the fingers to be released, are very useful in patients with advanced sensory and no motor disorders.

Complaints disappear for a long time after hydrocortisone injection into the carpal canal. Although oral low-dose cortisone treatment has been reported to give good results, the subsequent results of this treatment have not been mentioned.

SURGICAL TREATMENT

Patients whose complaints do not go away with drug treatment should be treated with surgery without spending more time, that is, without further increase in nerve damage. When the pressure on the nerve is removed surgically, the damage on the nerve will stop without further progression. The patient does not need to be hospitalized for this surgical intervention. In an ambulatory patient, that area is anesthetized with local anesthesia.