Avoid Carpal Tunnel Surgery with Physical Therapy
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is compression of the Median nerve inside the “tunnel” at the wrist joint.
Symptoms include numbness, tingling, pain and weakness of the hand & thumb. Along with the Median nerve, there are nine tendons, (tendons attach muscle to bone) inside the tunnel made up of 8 tiny “Carpal” bones and one ligament. Inflammation causes swelling and any swelling inside a narrow tunnel of tendons and nerve is harmful.
Tendon swelling compresses and irritates the Median nerve causing the symptoms listed above. Surgery involves cutting the ligament at your wrist to decompress the tunnel, which may unfortunately cause more inflammation and swelling.
In physical therapy, we treat the cause of inflammation with massage, stretching and exercises in order to limit swelling inside the tunnel thus decompressing the nerve to resolve numbness, tingling, pain and weakness of the hand.
Dr. Parsa Karimi PT, DPT
PKL Physical Therapy & Wellness PC