She wound up getting surgery in October.
Sports Medicine in High Point, said people in certain industries, such as poultry processing and meatpacking, are particularly susceptible to developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Contrary to what many believe, he said, computer use, while it can exacerbate the condition, is not a cause.
Roughly 3 percent of the working population in the United States suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The majority of cases, Warburton said, are idiopathic, which means “there’s no definite cause for it happening, just that it occurs.”
The carpal tunnel is a path in the wrist through which passes the median nerve, one of the main nerves in the arm. Carpal tunnel syndrome is what’s known as a compression neuropathy, in which the nerve is being pushed in by a ligament, explained Dr. Michael Xu, a surgeon with Piedmont Orthopedics in Greensboro.
“Sometimes there’s no reason why a 40-year-old person working in an office doing little physical activity will present with it,” he said.
“Basically when that happens, there’s not enough room in your carpal tunnel,” he said. “And nerves don’t like to be compressed. It starts to affect the blood flow to the nerve, starts to affect function, and that’s when you start getting the symptoms, including numbness, weakness and pain.”
“So a lot of people think they’re sleeping on their hand wrong,” the Miamibased hand surgeon said in a telephone interview. “They think that maybe they’re rolling over and lying on their hand, which can happen, but that’s pretty uncommon. There’s more retention of fluid at night, though, which pools, and puts pressure on the nerve.”
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Causes, symptoms and treatment by Robert Lopez Oak Ridge resident Alina Simmons couldn’t hold a pen for more than two seconds. When she sat down to dinner, she couldn’t grasp a fork without her hand going numb. About five years ago, the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome began creeping up on the 47-year-old 911 dispatcher. By last year a constant tingling and numbness had set in, and she became “pretty much helpless.” “I would wear a brace, and it wouldn’t help any,” Simmons said. “I couldn’t even open a bottle of water. If I typed too long, anything I would do for an extended period of time would just cause irritation and hurt.”
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Xu said those who perform a great deal of repetitive motions are prone to developing carpal tunnel syndrome, but it can be caused by a variety of other factors, from wrist trauma to tumors. Swelling in the wrist during pregnancy can also cause the condition. Women between the ages of 45 and 64 are at the greatest risk, with a little over 6 percent suffering from the condition, according to the CDC. Dr. Mark Warburton, a surgeon with UNC Regional Physicians Orthopaedics &
Dr. Alejandro Badia, past president of the International Society for Sport Traumatology of the Hand, said people typically start feeling symptoms at night.
The numbness, tingling and pain will actually wake some people up, Warburton said. “They have to shake their hand to get some relief and go back to sleep,” he
Options for treating carpal tunnel syndrome can include wearing a brace or splint at night, taking a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication, steroid injections or surgery.