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These 3 treatments are the only ways to actually help carpal tunnel
If you think you have carpal tunnel, you may be tempted to try your own interventions.
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But it's actually one of those syndromes that's best left up to a doctor to diagnose and treat. Don't just assume you have it and start furiously Googling for solutions.
Carpal tunnel occurs when a specific nerve in the wrist is compressed, causing numbness and tingling in the hand and fingers.
Dr. Aaron Daluiski, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery, told Tech Insider that some of the interventions patients try on their own — like exercises — can actually make symptoms worse.
"Right now, there really are only three things that help improve symptoms," he said.
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Here's what they are:
Most of us actually sleep with our wrists bent, Daluiski said.
Wrist splints that patients wear at night are the most low-tech solution, but he said they can "dramatically" improve carpal tunnel symptoms.
A splint can keep the wrist in a neutral position so you put less pressure on the nerve while you sleep.
"That's the easiest option that we normally start with for patients," Daluiski said.
There's little harm in trying a wrist splint, but its effectiveness is far from guaranteed. After reviewing the research on the subject, an independent panel of experts concluded that "there is limited evidence that a splint worn at night is more effective than no treatment in the short term."
If carpal tunnel symptoms persist, Daluiski said steroid injections are another option.
Patients get cortisone injections near the compressed nerve in their wrist.
Daluiski said doctors don't fully understand how this method works yet.
"We think it works by shrinking the tendons that are inflamed," he said. "If the tendons are a little bit inflamed and we shrink them, essentially, we're giving more room for the nerve."
Another independent panel of experts reviewed the research on the subject, concluding that cortisone injections can improve patients' symptoms for up to a month after they get the shot.
Due to potential side effects, people shouldn't get more than three or four coristone injections per year.
Daluiski, a surgeon, calls surgery the "gold standard" for carpal tunnel treatment.
The procedure only takes 10 minutes, he said, and patients are back to normal in four to six weeks.
Surgery "relieves symptoms significantly better than splinting," another independent panel of experts concluded. But it wasn't clear from the evidence whether this is true for patients with only mild symptoms. And surgery, the experts write, is not necessarily better than steroid injections.
Daluiski said he's surprised how many of his patients are worried about surgery because they have friends or relatives who had a bad experience with it. He thinks many people who were not helped by a surgery might have been misdiagnosed to begin with.
"Most of our patients that we diagnose correctly and treat correctly — either with splints, cortisone injections, or surgery," Daluiski said, "get dramatic improvement of their symptoms."
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