Carpal Tunnel Specialist

What is carpal tunnel syndrome?

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful wrist condition caused by nerve compression.

The carpal tunnel is in the part of your wrist where it joins the hand and contains bones and connective tissues. The median nerve is a sizeable nerve that passes down your arm, through the carpal tunnel, and into your hand.

If the ligament that passes through the carpal tunnel thickens, it can press on the median nerve, causing carpal tunnel syndrome. The pressure typically increases without treatment and can cause severe pain and loss of function over time.

What are the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome?

When it first starts, carpal tunnel syndrome usually causes an aching wrist. You might notice this more if you’ve been using your hand a lot. The aching gradually gets worse and spreads into your thumb and first two fingers of the affected hand.

The aching can also spread up your arm, along the line of the median nerve. As well as aching, you might start to experience chronic pain in your hand and wrist, and find it increasingly difficult to grip things.

Carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms are often worse at night, and you could wake up in pain. You might find it hurts right up into your shoulder, and that your hand and wrist go numb or have pins and needles or tingling sensations.

The weakness in your arm and hand gets worse, too, and can reach a point where you can’t carry or hold objects, and even writing becomes impossible.

How is carpal tunnel syndrome treated?

To relieve the pain and other symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, your team at Northland Orthopedics & Sports Medicine needs to take the pressure off the median nerve. Keeping the wrist straight reduces the compression that causes carpal tunnel syndrome, so wearing a special wrist splint at night can stop your wrist from curling over as you sleep.

As well as wearing a splint, you might benefit from having physical therapy to help the soft tissues heal and get stronger. Steroid injections into your wrist can reduce inflammation and therefore ease the pain as well.

If these methods aren’t relieving your symptoms, you might need to undergo a carpal tunnel release. This is a surgical procedure in which your provider at Northland Orthopedics & Sports Medicine cuts the ligament that’s compressing the median nerve. Carpal tunnel release can be highly effective in relieving symptoms and restoring function.

We proudly serve the greater Kansas City area. If wrist pain is causing you problems, prompt treatment at Northland Orthopedics & Sports Medicine can make all the difference. Call the office today to schedule a consultation or book an appointment online.