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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition in which a nerve that runs through your wrist becomes pinched. The word “carpal” refers to the part of your wrist where the carpal (wrist) bones are. Your wrist is made up of eight small carpal bones and two long bones of the forearm. These carpal bones protect nine tendons that control your fingers and the median nerve that controls your thumb, your index and middle finger, and part of your ring finger. This protected area is called the carpal tunnel.

The tendons connect the muscles in your forearm to the bones in your fingers to make your fingers move. When these tendons are overloaded, they can become inflamed and swollen. When one or more of these tendons swell, they can put pressure against the other structures in the carpal tunnel, including the median nerve.

When a tendon swells and pressure is put on the median nerve, you may experience pain, numbness, or tingling in your hand, and fingers. This pressure can affect how you control your fingers and may result in weakness in your hands, making it difficult to hold objects such as a glass of water or car keys.

This pain and loss of hand control is called carpal tunnel syndrome. If you are aware of how you work and how you use your hands, arms and shoulders, you can reduce the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome or another repetitive strain injury.

Tips to help avoid developing carpal tunnel syndrome.

  1. Proper Posture: Keep your hands in a straight line with your forearm while working at a keyboard. This proper posture will minimize the distance that your tendons have to move, which allows them to work more efficiently.
  2. Preparation: Before you begin any repetitive activity, such as typing, gardening or playing a musical instrument, prepare your body by doing some simple stretching exercises to prime your muscles, tendons, and ligaments for the task that follows.
  3. Breaks: Give your muscles a brief rest from whatever your tasks by changing how the muscles work for 5-10 seconds ever 20-30 minutes. For example, if you are typing, take the breaks that the Office Athlete® suggests, or at least raise your arms to the ceiling and straighten out your fingers for 5-10 seconds every 20 or 30 minutes.

See the Tendonitis, Tenosynovitis, Bursitis, and Repetitive Strain Injury sections for related information.