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What is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? It is a compression of the nerve, called the median nerve, at the wrist.
Pressure increases on the nerve and within the carpal tunnel region, thus causing pain, numbness and a tingling sensation.
This can be caused by repetitive motion or a "pinching" of the nerve, which results in a cascade of events.
The area may become inflamed, which puts more pressure on the nerve.
If this swelling or edema continues for more than two days, it can actually make scar tissue.
Once scar tissue is formed, it never leaves the body.
What you can do to prevent Carpal Tunnel? There are a series of simple hand exercises that can help keep edema down.
One important exercise is to bend each finger individually.
Hold three fingers straight with the opposite hand while bending one finger at a time.
Do this for all each finger.
This would be engaging the Flexor Digitorum Superficialis, or F.
D.
S.
These will not only help prevent edema from forming, but will also increase the patient's range of motion.
A second exercise is to bend the distal joint (the one closest to your fingertips), while blocking the joint just proximal to it.
This would be engaging the Flexor Digitorum Profundus, or F.
D.
P.
A third and equally important exercise is to make a claw, and then straighten out the whole hand.
Hold for 5 seconds and repeat.
What all these exercises have in common, is that they facilitate a gliding motion of the tendons through the carpal tunnel, and thereby reducing swelling on the median nerve.
This in turn would help prevent scar tissue from forming.
In addition, the patient may find that soaking the hand in baths of cool and then warm water, may also reduce inflammation.
This sets up expansion and contraction as a pumping action.
This will also help blood flow and thereby remove some of the extra inflammatory cells that have gathered in the area.
Overall, however, the patient should be educated in using proper body mechanics.
These points would include: • maintaining the wrist in a neutral position whenever possible.
• avoid long gripping action or pinching while flexing at the wrist.
• avoid repetitive overuse of the wrist • avoid having the wrist in a flexed position (curled inward toward the inner arm) while sleeping.
In regards to the frequency of doing these exercises, it is recommended that they be performed a minimum of two times a day at work.
With forethought, preventative care, and adjustments to a person's work station, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome may be kept at a minimum, or prevented, in some cases.
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