Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: What Are The Symptoms and Causes?

Today many people suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. It affects the hands due to pressure created in the median nerve. Carpal tunnel is a small passage having ligaments and bones of palm in its periphery. Pain in carpal tunnel shows carpel tunnel syndrome in a person. This syndrome causes a tingling sensation, weakness, and numbness in hands.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Symptoms and Causes

It is a painful condition that creates numbness and weakness in the hand. When a nerve inside the wrist gets heavily pressurized, it stops the sensation of the wrist. This nerve is also called a median nerve, and it helps to provide overall sensation to wrist, thumb, and fingers except for the little finger.

What is carpal tunnel syndrome?

It is a small restricted tube or a canal inside the wrist. It connects the forearm and hand with the help of tendons and median nerve. The parts of the canal consist of ligaments that hold all elements of the passage together and carpal bones that surround the entire canal of the hands. If the median nerve starts swelling, it creates itching, burning, and inflammation in palm and hand regions.

It normally appears and develops after the age of 40 years. If it remains for a long time, it can create numbness in hands permanently. It can also weaken the muscles of the hands due to the pressurized median nerve. Most people believe that this syndrome happens to office workers.

But this fact is absolutely false as the disease was recognized in the mid-1800s, and the surgery first made was in 1930. So, there were not many offices back then. Carpal tunnel syndrome can affect anybody. It generally increases with age, but it is quite unusual before 20 years of age.

Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Most patients of carpal tunnel syndrome do not feel the same amount of pain all the time. It pains a little bit at starting and also does not stay for a long period. But as the syndrome worsens, it gives severe pain and happens more frequently and stays longer. It gradually increases even without any injury.

Some symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome include:

• It shows a major sign of itching, tingling, pain, and burning sensation in all fingers except the little finger. Numbness in the palm is also a clear sign of this syndrome.
• While moving thumb or any finger, it provides sensations that are like electric shocks. It happens more frequently when anyone radiates their hand. Some of these cases where shock sensations happen include driving of the car or holding a thing for a long time.
• The feeling of numbness and pain sometimes affects the entire forearm and hands.
• Tingling sensation and weakness in hands cause dropping off things that you hold. The reception power of the hand slowly decreases, which makes it difficult to hold a thing properly.
• Certain clumsiness or weakness in the palm region restricts the movement of any finger. Grabbing a thing becomes difficult. Buttoning a shirt also seems difficult due to the weakness in hands.

During day time, the numbness in hands increases because of the regular movement of the wrist for doing work. At night time, the syndrome leads to numbness when the median nerve gets pressure from the bent wrist. This pain and weakness travel up to the shoulders too.

Causes of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

People suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome are mostly unaware of the reasons. It affects gradually to older people. Various factors are responsible for the cause of this syndrome.

1. Continuous usage of hands:

Using hands continuously for a longer period pressurizes the nerves and tendons of the wrist. The use of the same hand with wrist motion can cause swelling in hands.

2. Hereditary effect:

Certain anatomic differences, like the smaller tunnel, is an important reason for this syndrome. It can pass through family genes. People having small tunnel have high chances of getting affected by these syndromes.

3. Bad health conditions:

Patients of diabetes, hormonal imbalance, rheumatoid arthritis, menopause, kidney failure are likely to have carpal tunnel syndrome.

4. Hormonal changes:

Changes that happen in hormones during pregnancy can cause swelling. Fluid retention is common in pregnant ladies, which can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. But it generally heals after pregnancy.

5. Workplace conditions:

Continuous flexing of the wrist in work or improper positioning of the wrist can create pressure in the nerve. It damages the muscle movement of the hand.

Smaller wrist in women is also a reason that it happens more in them than men. People suffering from it suggest that moving or shaking hands soothes the pain in their wrist and hands.

Relaxing grip and reducing force helps in healing carpal tunnel syndrome. A person suffering from this syndrome should make a diagnosis and follow the treatment procedure for curing it.