Worksite changes. Changing position of your computer keyboard or making other ergonomic changes can help ease symptoms.Įxercise. Stretching and strengthening exercises can be helpful in people whose symptoms have gotten better. Surgery. This eases compression on the nerves in the carpal tunnel. It also eases the compression of the nerves inside the tunnel.Īnti-inflammatory medication. These may be oral or injected into the carpal tunnel space. Splinting your hand. This helps keep your wrist from moving. How well you tolerate specific medications, procedures, or therapies Your health care provider will figure out the best treatment for you based on: Electrodiagnostic tests stimulate the muscles and nerves in your hand to see how well they work. These tests are the best way to diagnose carpal tunnel syndrome. He or she may recommend that you have electrodiagnostic tests on your nerves. Your provider will check your medical history and give you a physical exam.
It can recur although we often see this 10, 15 years down the line and that can be treated if it comes up. Patients who have long-standing or severe symptoms may require a longer period of time and may not get back a hundred percent of their function that they had before. (music) The long-term prognosis for mild cases is usually a near-full recovery within the first six months.
#CARPAL TUNNEL PAIN FREE#
Your fingers are free to move and you may have some soreness in your wrist but, generally, patients get back to regular activities after about two to four weeks.
After the procedure, they’ll have a soft dressing in place and can go home the same day.
#CARPAL TUNNEL PAIN FULL#
(music) Often, the procedure can be done with light sedation and local anesthesia only so patients usually do not require full general anesthesia. (music) (muffled speaking) For patients who have long-term symptoms, numbness that does not go away or start to have motor weakness in their hand, those are patients that we are more aggressive with pursuing surgery. (music) The treatments for carpal tunnel syndrome range from non-invasive treatments such as splinting or hand therapy to work on ergonomics and nerve gliding exercises to injections which may also provide diagnostic information or, for persistent or severe cases, patients may require surgery. If the diagnosis is not clear, we may refer patients to have a nerve conduction study as well. (music) Often, carpal tunnel syndrome can be diagnosed with our clinical examination alone. (music) Carpal tunnel syndrome is actually a compression of one of the large nerves of your arm at the level of the wrist and this can cause numbness, tingling, a burning pain or weakness of your fingers as this nerve controls some of the motion of your hand. I see patients with problems of the hand and upper extremity as well as patients who have tumors as I have a specialty in Orthopaedic Oncology. (music) > My name is Sophie Strike and I'm one of the hand and upper extremities surgeon at Johns Hopkins.