What is carpal tunnel syndrome, and how does it relate to repetitive strain disorders? It used to be thought of as one of those disorders, in fact, but doctors now recognize that the underlying cause is usually genetic or traumatic. The path through which the median nerve goes from the wrist to the hand is bound on three sides by bone and on the fourth side by a ligament. If this tunnel, called the carpal tunnel, is structurally too narrow or is somehow damaged, then the nerve gets pinched and results in pain.
The first sign of this hand pain is that the person wakes up with some numbness in their hand, possibly in the thumb, forefinger or middle finger. It may also spread to the palm, or eventually turn into a burning or tingling feeling. It’s easy at first to dismiss the symptoms, because what is carpal tunnel syndrome is often mistaken, at first, for a numbness caused by holding one’s hands in an awkward position while sleeping. This may trigger the symptoms, but the problem was already there.
While some repetitive actions may cause the carpal tunnel area to swell, resulting in this hand disorder, the underlying cause of this syndrome is more genetic or traumatic. Genetics may provide biological or structural preconditions in the arm that dispose a person to the syndrome, or accidents might injure the area and bring it on. Sometimes even unrelated things like hypothyrodism, pregnancy or rheumatoid arthritis seem to trigger it.
There really aren’t many types of carpal tunnel therapy that will be permanently effective, certainly not with severe cases. When dealing with what is carpal tunnel syndrome, the treatments that might work with a repetitive strain injury won’t necessarily work, and might even worsen the condition, and wrist braces only help temporarily. The generally suggested treatment is surgery to divide the ligament that presses on the nerve in the wrist. While this may seem drastic, it ultimately provides permanent relief to most people who go that route. If the alternative is an inability to use one’s hands, then surgery ends up not being that drastic at all.