Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Tips for diagnosing, treating, and avoiding carpal tunnel syndrome.

In the past carpal tunnel syndrome was something that you heard about; however, it was not a problem that many doctors were used to dealing with. Thankfully, this has changed in the past few years. You'll find that carpal tunnel syndrome has been becoming more and more prevalent, meaning that more doctors are dealing with these problems, which in turn makes them more aware than ever before of the symptoms that their patients are dealing with.

What is Carpal Tunnel?
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a problem involving the actual carpal tunnel, which runs through the wrist. It houses various tendons for the fingers as well as a special nerve, which is known as the median nerve. In many cases, problems occur which leads to the narrowing of this tunnel, which compresses this important nerve. This leads to the problem that is known as carpal tunnel syndrome, causing pain, numbness, tingling, and other problems.

More and More Doctors are Seeing Carpal Tunnel Patients
Today you will find that more and more doctors are actually seeing carpal tunnel patients. This problem is becoming more and more common, and patients are going to their doctors with these problems. However, you will find that there are a variety of other problems that can have symptoms that are very similar to those that come along with carpal tunnel. Even if doctors are very familiar with the symptoms of the problem, figuring out which patients need further testing can be a challenge.

Carpal tunnel is most often witnessed in patients who work at a computer all day. Most computer keyboards rest at an awkward angle, placing the wrist in an unnatural position which can lead to tingling, pain, or numbness.

New Questionnaires Available to Help Doctors
Research has been done on patients that were thought to have carpal tunnel. Recently new questionnaires based on this research have been made available to help doctors figure out which patients need to go with more testing.

The questionnaire is comprised of seven different questions. Usually those that answered "yes" to at least 3 of the questions did end up showing some abnormalities in other tests that were conducted. Some of the questions included whether they are dealing with tingling in the fingers, whether they are dealing with problems that are worse in the morning or at night, and several other symptoms related to carpal tunnel syndrome.

Armed with these new questions, doctors are now finding it easier to screen patients that have some of the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. This is helpful to doctors and patients alike. The more that is learned about the problem of carpal tunnel syndrome, the better doctors are being able to diagnose and treat it.