Therapy | Carpal tunnel syndrome in pregnancy

Therapy

In general, treatment of carpal tunnel is always necessary when the symptoms occur particularly frequently or last for a long period of time. In this context, however, it should always be borne in mind that during pregnancy any risk to the unborn child should be excluded. If the carpal tunnel syndrome is mild during pregnancy, a special wrist splint can be prescribed, which should be worn mainly during the night.

In addition, careful cooling of the affected wrist can help to alleviate the symptoms. Particularly pronounced cases of carpal tunnel syndrome are treated outside of pregnancy by means of surgery.During this procedure, the retinaculum flexorum is split, thus expanding the space inside the carpal tunnel. During pregnancy, however, this surgical procedure should only be performed in the presence of distressing symptoms.

The modern anaesthesia methods that are now available (for example, the so-called “plexus anaesthesia”) make it possible to perform the carpal tunnel syndrome operation with an acceptable risk for mother and child. Although surgical treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome during pregnancy is therefore possible, the women concerned should always bear in mind that the symptoms can completely disappear after delivery. It can be assumed that about 50% of women affected by carpal tunnel syndrome during pregnancy will have their symptoms disappear completely as soon as the child is born and the body and hormone balance have been restored.

Summary

Carpal tunnel syndrome is particularly common during pregnancy. This is particularly frustrating for the affected mothers, as they often cannot take their child in their arms or stroke it after birth due to the pain. But why is carpal tunnel syndrome so common during pregnancy?

During pregnancy, the female body undergoes a large number of hormonal changes. Among other things, these lead to increased water retention in the tissue. This is why there is also a significant increase in weight during pregnancy and swelling of the limbs.

This water is now in the tissue, and presses there on the surrounding structures. Also, or rather, the wrist stores water, since the wrist is furthest away from the trunk of the body and the water literally runs into the hands. This in turn leads to a constriction, i.e. compression, of the median nerve, which is responsible for the sensitive and motor supply of large parts of the hand.

This leads to carpal tunnel syndrome. The good news, however, is that with the normalization of the hormone balance, water retention decreases and pain and numbness soon disappear.