A persistent feeling of tingling, numbness or burning in fingers hands, or localized pain in the thumb, forefinger and middle, are the usual symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), a condition that usually occurs in people who overuse upper extremities for work.

The carpal tunnel is a corridor located on the front of the wrist and has an important role in the mobilization of the hand. For this corridor run numerous tendons and nerve endings, the most important of the median nerve.

If for any reason that nerve that runs through the central corridor is subject to certain forms of pressure appears STC, a pathology which is a very common reason for consultation in both primary and specialty care.

NEUROPATHY

ENTRAPMENT

According to Dr. Carmen Campos Lopez, the hospital clinical neurophysiologist Viamed apples, Logroño (La Rioja, northern Spain), “it is the most common entrapment neuropathy, which affects 10 percent of the general population, and is three times more common in women between 40 and 60 years. ”

“Although it usually begins in the dominant hand, just being bilateral in most cases,” she added.

On the circumstances that favor the appearance of the STC, Campos Lopez lists repetitive movements, “especially those of flexion and extension of the wrist, common in work tasks that involve forced flexion and extension of the wrists, very strong employment manual, use vibrating tools or persistent pressure on the wrist or palm base, assembly, sewing, cleaning, employees of butchers or fishmongers, barbers, etc. “.

There are also pre-determining pathological causes, as some diseases of the bones or joints, as rheumatoid arthritis or wrist fractures treated badly.

Finally, hormonal changes, such as hypothyroidism, menopause, pregnancy and diabetes type II, are related in many cases with the appearance of the STC.

The most common symptoms are pain, tingling and numbness, which at first appear only at night or to take certain positions. Subsequently, if the STC is not treated in time, you weakness and wasting of some muscles of the hand and clumsiness in handling objects.

Campos Lopez said that in addressing the STC, there are three main priorities: the etiological treatment-go to the origin of the disease, the conservative (splints in neutral, oral steroids, etc.) and surgical.

The etiological treatment is a series of corrective patterns that can alleviate the syndrome. For example, it is recommended to lie concerned to try to rest when your arm with pillows. Relief was also achieved in many cases avoiding using his hand too.

For the professionals who have no choice but to the intense and continuous exercise manual are encouraged to seek a new way of using the hand using a different tool.

The etiological treatment is recommended, finally, to avoid bending your wrists down for long periods.

OPERATION “SINGLE”

If the first two treatment options fail or are discarded by the specialist, the person affected by the syndrome should have surgery that surgery generally described as “simple and walking”.

The intervention, which usually lasts no more than fifteen minutes and is done under local anesthesia, involves a small incision in the affected wrist to locate the median nerve damage and release all the way through the carpal tunnel compression to cede to the which has been submitted.

Once you locate the nerve is severed a ligament that covers it and proceed to their release. Completed the surgical process, the wound is sutured and bandaged wrist.

A few minutes later, the patient usually go home for further recovery although it is recommended that you keep his arm up in the next few hours, with the help of a sling. It is also important that the operator does not stop moving the fingers and thumb, and in any case flex the wrist.

Once the anesthesia wears off, they occur just typical discomforts of surgery that is relieved by oral painkillers until the sutures are removed, an operation that is performed last between seven and ten days since the patient went under the knife.