What is carpal tun­nel syn­drome?
Carpal tun­nel syn­drome is a painful dis­or­der of the wrist and hand. The carpal tun­nel is a nar­row tun­nel formed by the bones and other tis­sues of your wrist. This tun­nel pro­tects your median nerve. The median nerve gives you feel­ing in your thumb, and index, mid­dle and ring fin­gers. But when other tis­sues in the carpal tun­nel, such as lig­a­ments and ten­dons, get swollen or inflamed, they press against the median nerve. That pres­sure can make part of your hand hurt or feel numb.

What causes carpal tun­nel syn­drome?
Doing the same hand move­ments over and over can lead to carpal tun­nel syn­drome. It’s most com­mon in peo­ple whose jobs require pinch­ing or grip­ping with the wrist held bent. Peo­ple at risk include peo­ple who use com­put­ers, car­pen­ters, gro­cery check­ers, assembly-line work­ers, meat pack­ers, musi­cians and mechan­ics. Hob­bies such as gar­den­ing, needle­work, golf­ing and canoe­ing can some­times bring on the symptoms.

Carpal tun­nel syn­drome is linked to other things too. It may be caused by an injury to the wrist, such as a frac­ture. Or it may be caused by a dis­ease such as dia­betes, rheuma­toid arthri­tis or thy­roid dis­ease. Carpal tun­nel syn­drome is also com­mon dur­ing the last few months of pregnancy.

Symp­toms of carpal tun­nel syndrome

* Numb­ness or tin­gling in your hand and fin­gers, espe­cially the thumb and index and mid­dle fingers.

* Pain in your wrist, palm or forearm.

* More numb­ness or pain at night than dur­ing the day. The pain may be so bad it wakes you up. You may shake or rub your hand to get relief.

* More pain when you use your hand or wrist more.

* Trou­ble grip­ping objects.

* Weak­ness in your thumb.

How is carpal tun­nel syn­drome diag­nosed?
Your doc­tor will prob­a­bly ask you about your symp­toms. He or she may exam­ine you and ask you how you use your hands. Your doc­tor may also do these tests:

* Your doc­tor may tap the inside of your wrist. You may feel pain or a sen­sa­tion like an elec­tric shock.
* Your doc­tor may ask you to bend your wrist down for 1 minute to see if this causes symp­toms.
* Your doc­tor may have you get a nerve con­duc­tion test or an elec­tromyo­g­ra­phy (EMG) test to see whether the nerves and mus­cles in your arm and hand show the typ­i­cal effects of carpal tun­nel syndrome.

How seri­ous is carpal tun­nel syn­drome?
Carpal tun­nel syn­drome usu­ally isn’t seri­ous. With treat­ment, the pain will usu­ally go away and you’ll have no last­ing dam­age to your hand or wrist.

How is carpal tun­nel syn­drome treated?
If carpal tun­nel syn­drome is caused by a med­ical prob­lem, your doc­tor will prob­a­bly first treat that problem.

Your doc­tor may ask you to rest your wrist or change how you use your hand. Your doc­tor may also ask you to wear a splint on your wrist. The splint keeps your wrist from mov­ing but lets your hand do most of what it nor­mally does. A splint can help ease the pain of carpal tun­nel syn­drome, espe­cially at night.

Putting ice on your wrist, mas­sag­ing the area and doing stretch­ing exer­cises may help too.

Tips on reliev­ing carpal tun­nel syndrome

* Prop up your arm with pil­lows when you lie down.
* Avoid using your hand too much.
* Find a new way to use your hand by using a dif­fer­ent tool.
* Try to use the other hand more often.
* Avoid bend­ing your wrists down for long periods.

Can I pre­vent carpal tun­nel syn­drome?
Yes. See the box below for some tips on pre­vent­ing carpal tun­nel syndrome.

Many prod­ucts you can buy–such as wrist rests–are sup­posed to ease symp­toms of carpal tun­nel syn­drome. No one has proven that these prod­ucts really pre­vent wrist prob­lems. Some peo­ple may have less pain and numb­ness after using these prod­ucts, but other peo­ple may have increased pain and numbness.

Things that may help pre­vent carpal tun­nel syndrome

* Lose weight if you’re over­weight.
* Get treat­ment for any dis­ease you have that may cause carpal tun­nel syn­drome.
* If you do the same tasks with your hands over and over, try not to bend, extend or twist your hands for long peri­ods.
* Don’t work with your arms too close or too far from your body.
* Don’t rest your wrists on hard sur­faces for long peri­ods.
* Switch hands dur­ing work tasks.
* Make sure your tools aren’t too big for your hands.
* Take reg­u­lar breaks from repeated hand move­ments to give your hands and wrists time to rest.
* Don’t sit or stand in the same posi­tion all day.
* If you use a key­board a lot, adjust the height of your chair so that your fore­arms are level with your key­board and you don’t have to flex your wrists to type.