The carpal tunnel syndrome
The carpal tunnel syndrome is a clinical picture which is caused by the narrowing of the carpal tunnel. The causes can vary from case to case. However, they all have in common the compression of the median nerve, the nerve of the middle arm.
If this is only slightly pronounced, affected persons usually only have a numbness on the inside of the thumb, index and middle finger. The more this nerve is squeezed, the more pronounced the symptoms are. This can range from pain in the wrist and forearm to weakness and atrophy of individual hand muscles.
In the late stages of the disease, the muscle group around the thumb is usually the most affected by the muscle weakness, which can make gripping and fist movements considerably more difficult under certain circumstances. In milder cases, carpal tunnel syndrome can initially be treated by conservative measures, such as wearing a night splint to relieve the wrist (see: Carpal tunnel syndrome splint). However, if the symptoms persist despite these measures, the therapy of choice usually consists of surgically severing the carpal ligament in order to create more space for the underlying structures and especially the nerve.
