Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Dr. Pinsky from the New York Plastic Surgical Group. Would like to talk a little bit about carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel is really the most common compressive neuropathy of the upper extremity, meaning it’s a very common problem. About 5% of the population overall has carpal tunnel. There are certain known associations with carpal tunnel, things like pregnancy, obesity, diabetes, all have been shown to have increased chances of developing carpal tunnel. Other things like heavy vibrational activity, people that use jackhammers or certain very repetitive high energy motion.
There is a lot of debate over things like computer use and office work, and there really has never been any conclusive evidence to show that that does contribute to carpal tunnel. But as I said, it’s a common problem in general.
Typically the symptoms you would experience are tingling, numbness, pins and needles, burning sensations in these three fingers, the thumb, the index and middle finger of the hand. That’s because the nerve that controls the feeling in these hands is what gets compressed in the wrist, in the area called the carpal tunnel. Treatment in the early stages can be activity modification, avoiding pressure to the wrist, sleeping with splints at night. Sometimes we’ll do a cortisone injection, which can help with the diagnosis, and can treat the symptoms temporarily. But generally, the treatment, if it’s advanced or beyond the early stages, is surgery. And surgery is extremely effective. A surgical procedure with low complication rate and very high patient satisfaction.
