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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

More than 3 million people in the United States suffer from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Also called: median nerve compression is a numbness or tingling in the hand and arm caused by a pinched nerve in the wrist. The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway on the palm side of your wrist made up of bones and ligaments. The median nerve, which controls sensation and movement in the thumb and first three fingers, runs through this passageway along with tendons to the fingers and thumb. Symptoms usually start gradually, with frequent pinching pains, tingling, or itching numbness in the palm of the hand and the fingers, especially the thumb and the index and middle fingers. Some carpal tunnel sufferers also experience sensation of pins and needles, hand clumsiness, hand pain at night, hand weakness, or wrist weakness. These are all signs that you may be suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Treatment: Wrist splinting for 1 to 2 weeks. Possible occupational changes. Correction of any underlying disorder. Oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as indomethacin (Indocin), mefenamic acid (Ponstel), or sodium naproxen. Injectable corticosteroids. Pyridoxine for vitmain b6 deficiency. Surgical decompression of the nerve by sectioning the entire transverse carpal tunnel ligament. or Neurolysis (freeing the nerve fibers).

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