Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

For everyone who works daily on a computer. The wrong method of  using mouse and keyboard will result in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome! Use the mouse and keyboard correctly.

What is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) ?

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), is associated by symptoms and signs, which are caused by compression of the median nerve travelling through the carpal tunnel.Carpal Tunnel Syndrome affects the hands since it is an upper limb neuropathy that results in motor and sensory disturbance of the median nerve.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome has been around for decades, most notably during World War II. During this time, not much information was known pertaining to CTS, but sooner or later, it was going to be studied vastly to clearly understand exactly what it is and how it comes about.

This condition affects individuals by causing pain, paresthesias, and sometimes weakness in the median nerve distribution. Being diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can lead to pain, numbness and tingling sensations can occur from the arm and extend to the shoulder and neck area; these feelings are more prevalent at night due to various sleeping positions. To aide in the prevention of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, stretching exercises of the wrist, hand, and fingers have been used to combat against the pain and numbness caused by repetitive actions. Other than using recommended stretches and exercises, useful treatments for CTS include use of night splints, corticosteroid injections and ultimately with surgery.

Symptoms

Carpal tunnel syndrome produces a series of symptoms from mild to extreme. These symptoms worsen over time and patients that have been diagnosed with CTS experience numbness, tingling, or burning sensations in the thumb and fingers, particularly the index and middle fingers, which are affected by the median nerve. Individuals also experience pain in the hands or wrists and some report to have lost gripping strength. Pain also develops in the arm and shoulder and swelling of the hand, which increases at night.

Numbness and paresthesias in the median nerve distribution are the neuropathic symptoms (NS) of carpal tunnel entrapment syndrome. Weakness and atrophy of the thenar muscles may occur if the condition remains untreated.

Surgery

Correct way to work on the Computer

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Hand Exercises

Various stretching exercises can aide in the prevention of CTS, but most people do not know how to effectively stretch the muscles of the wrist and hand. To reduce the probability of being diagnosed with CTS, the following stretch exercises are helpful:

(IMPORTANT : Before performing any of the described exercises, speak with a healthcare professional to receive more information about CTS prevention exercises.)

(Data Source: E-mails, Wikipedia | Images: Wikipedia)