Carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome - This syndrome is caused by compression of the median nerve where it passes through the carpal tunnel under the transverse wrist ligament. It is often formed in people who work with a computer mouse for a long time. Typical signs of carpal tunnel syndrome:
- the patient feels pain and tingling in the hand area, which is more pronounced at night
- the feeling of swelling of the hand and wrist
- numbness of the index and middle fingers
With a long course of such a condition as carpal tunnel syndrome, the patient may develop osteoporosis in the phalanges of the fingers of the hand in combination with a spasm of blood vessels and persistent burning pains.
Diagnostics of the carpal tunnel syndrome
The cause of this condition is established as a result of examining the patient, studying the characteristics of his lifestyle. Typical muscle-tonic symptoms at the level of the forearm of the same hand are revealed. Often, the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome is limited to neurological examination.
Damage to the median nerve (median nerve neuritis) causes sensory impairment in fingers I, II, and III.
EMG and ENG allow us to distinguish this lesion of the median nerve at the level of the wrist from compression of the nerve root by the affected intervertebral disc at the cervical level, which also causes pain and numbness in the corresponding areas of the upper limb.
Patients can use the Katz hand chart to mark the location of their symptoms (pain, numbness, tingling, etc.), after which these charts can be classified by the physician as classic, probable, possible, or uncharacteristic manifestation of carpal tunnel syndrome.
Classic patterns of carpal tunnel syndrome (numbness, pain, tingling, and numbness). Symptoms affect at least two fingers - 1st, 2nd, or 3rd toes. The classic pattern allows for symptoms in the fourth and fifth fingers, wrist pain, and its irradiation above the wrist, but does not allow the presence of these symptoms on the palmar or dorsum of the hand.
Likely patterns of carpal tunnel syndrome (numbness, pain, tingling, and numbness). The same set of symptoms as in the classic case, with the exception of symptoms on the ulnar surface of the hand and palm. If a pattern is likely, symptoms affect only one of the fingers — the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd toes.
The atypical pattern of carpal tunnel syndrome (numbness, pain, tingling, and numbness). There are no symptoms in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd fingers.
Treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome
After a specialist has established an accurate diagnosis, depending on the severity of the manifestation of the disease, the patient will be offered conservative or surgical treatment of this disease, if conservative therapy has not yielded a positive effect.
Elimination of soreness, tingling, and restoration of sensitivity in the fingers in the treatment of neuritis of the median nerve in the case of carpal tunnel syndrome (carpal tunnel) is accelerated with the use of physiotherapy.
Depending on the severity of the manifestations of the carpal tunnel syndrome (carpal tunnel) in the patient, the following therapeutic actions are possible:
- drug therapy (NSAIDs, analgesics, hormones)
- therapeutic injections - injection of drugs into the canal cavity
- manual therapy (muscle, articular and radicular technique)
- physiotherapy (UHF, CMT, etc.)
- acupuncture
- surgical treatment
In the treatment of neuritis of the median nerve (Carpal tunnel syndrome), the elimination of soreness, tingling, and restoration of sensitivity in the fingers is accelerated with the use of physical therapy.
See also
- Anatomy of the nervous system
- Spinal disc herniation
- Pain in the arm and neck (trauma, cervical radiculopathy)
- The eyeball and the visual pathway:
- Anatomy of the eye and physiology of vision
- The visual pathway and its disorders
- Eye structures and visual disturbances that occur when they are affected
- Retina and optic disc, visual impairment when they are affected
- Impaired movement of the eyeballs
- Nystagmus and conditions resembling nystagmus
- Dry Eye Syndrome
- Optic nerve and retina:
- Compression neuropathy of the optic nerve
- Edema of the optic disc (papilledema)
- Ischemic neuropathy of the optic nerve
- Meningioma of the optic nerve sheath
- Optic nerve atrophy
- Optic neuritis in adults
- Optic neuritis in children
- Opto-chiasmal arachnoiditis
- Pseudo-edema of the optic disc (pseudopapilledema)
- Toxic and nutritional optic neuropathy
- Neuropathies and neuralgia:
- Diabetic, alcoholic, toxic and small fiber sensory neuropathy (SFSN)
- Facial nerve neuritis (Bell's palsy, post-traumatic neuropathy)
- Fibular (peroneal) nerve neuropathy
- Median nerve neuropathy
- Neuralgia (intercostal, occipital, facial, glossopharyngeal, trigeminal, metatarsal)
- Post-traumatic neuropathies
- Post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy
- Post-traumatic sciatic nerve neuropathy
- Radial nerve neuropathy
- Tibial nerve neuropathy
- Ulnar nerve neuropathy
- Tumors (neoplasms) of the peripheral nerves and autonomic nervous system (neuroma, sarcomatosis, melanoma, neurofibromatosis, Recklinghausen's disease)
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Ulnar nerve compression in the cubital canal
