To ease pain from mild carpal tunnel people can take more frequent breaks to rest their handsand apply cold packs to reduce occasional swelling. Other options for carpal tunnel syndrome treatment include wrist splinting, medications and surgery.
Nonsurgical therapy
Most people with carpal tunnel syndrome experience effective treatment with nonsurgical methods, including:
-Wrist splinting. A splint that holds your wrist still while you sleep can help relieve nighttime symptoms of tingling and numbness. Splinting and other conservative treatments are more likely to help you if you've had only mild to moderate symptoms for less than 10 months.
-Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). NSAIDs may help relieve pain from carpal tunnel syndrome if you have an associated inflammatory condition.
-Corticosteroids. Your doctor may inject your carpal tunnel with a corticosteroid, such as cortisone, to relieve your pain. Corticosteroids decrease inflammation, which relieves pressure on the median nerve. Oral corticosteroids aren't as effective as corticosteroid injections for treating carpal tunnel syndrome.
If carpal tunnel syndrome results from an inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, then treating the underlying condition generally also reduces the carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms.
Surgery
Generally, nonsurgical treatments may be more effective if you have only mild nerve impairment. When the pain or numbness of carpal tunnel syndrome persists more than six months, surgery may be the best option.
Your surgeon may use one of a few accepted techniques. But in all accepted surgical procedures, your doctor cuts the ligament pressing on your nerve. At times, surgery can be done using an endoscope, a telescope-like device with a tiny camera attached to it that allows your doctor to see inside your carpal tunnel and perform the surgery through small incisions in your hand or wrist. In other cases, surgery involves making a larger incision in the palm of your hand over the carpal tunnel and releasing the nerve.
Surgery usually results in marked improvement, but you may experience some residual numbness, pain, stiffness or weakness. Surveys of people who have undergone carpal tunnel release indicate that about 70 percent are completely or very satisfied with the outcome of their surgery. Some variables that are associated with lower levels of satisfaction include drinking more than two alcoholic drinks a day, smoking, lower mental and physical health status before surgery, and exposure to repetitive, forceful activity.
Soreness or weakness may take from several weeks to as long as a few months to resolve. If surgery appears to be the best alternative for relieving your symptoms or preventing further muscle degeneration, be sure to talk with your surgeon about the procedure that will work best for you and with your plans to return to your previous activity levels, both at work and at home.
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TO GET TO: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/carpal-tunnel-syndrome/DS00326/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs
revision: May 22, 2009
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