Avoid Carpal Tunnel Surgery With These Noninvasive Therapies

Your wrist is in pain or you’re starting to develop numbness and/or tingling in your fingers. These symptoms are the hallmarks of carpal tunnel syndrome, which is a form of nerve entrapment in your wrist. 

The good news is that carpal tunnel syndrome is not only quite common, but there are plenty of nonsurgical solutions that can help you find relief.

At Advanced Spine Care and Pain Management, our team believes that working with your body is often a far better approach than more invasive solutions like surgery. To illustrate this point, here we look at several effective, nonsurgical therapies for carpal tunnel syndrome.

Carpal tunnel syndrome basics

When reviewing treatment options, we find it helpful to first start with a brief overview of the problem. 

On the underside of each of your wrists is a carpal tunnel, which is a small space (about an inch wide) through which nine flexor tendons and your median nerve pass. If this tunnel narrows or tissues around your flexor tendons swell, the resulting pressure can squeeze your median nerve. 

This nerve is responsible for the sensations in all of your fingers except your little finger, which is why the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome can be felt in both your wrist and in four of your fingers. As your median nerve becomes crowded by inflammation, it can cause pain in your wrist, as well as numbness and tingling in your thumb and three fingers.

In less common cases, the symptoms may travel the other way and go back up into your arm.

Treating carpal tunnel syndrome with surgery

To remedy carpal tunnel syndrome, we offer several minimally invasive treatment options that garner great results, including:

Bracing

One of the first steps we take is to immobilize your wrist to allow the swelling in your carpal tunnel to go downl. To do this, we recommend bracing or splinting your wrist, even at night, so that your carpal tunnel stays straight.

Tackling inflammation

Whether through over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications or corticosteroid injections, we want to relieve the inflammation in your wrist, which will go a long way toward relieving your symptoms. As well, by reducing the inflammation, you can take steps to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome from recurring down the road, especially if you engage in this next treatment option:

Targeted exercises

Another great way to treat carpal tunnel syndrome is through targeted gliding exercises that encourage smoother movement of your flexor tendons through your carpal tunnel. We provide you with a list of these exercises.

Platelet-rich plasma therapy

We offer platelet-rich plasma therapy, which contains growth factors that tackle inflammation, as well as resources to help your tissues repair themselves more quickly.

As you can see by this list, we offer plenty of treatment options for carpal tunnel syndrome that are well worth considering (and trying), long before turning to a surgical solution.

For expert diagnosis and treatment of your carpal tunnel syndrome, please contact one of our New York offices in Staten Island or Hartsdale, to set up an appointment.