Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Diagnosis and Management Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a common peripheral nerve entrapment syndrome. It defines CTS as a condition resulting in hand and arm numbness, tingling, and pain due to median nerve compression. The report details diagnostic methods, including Tinel's and Phalen's tests, and explains the underlying pathophysiology, such as nerve compression leading to axonal deterioration and neuritis. It highlights risk factors like diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, and explores various treatments ranging from rest and NSAIDs to physical therapy, corticosteroid injections, and surgery. The report also discusses non-surgical management strategies, including physiotherapy and splinting, and alternative therapies such as anti-inflammatory drugs and acupuncture. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of both surgical and non-surgical approaches as health promotion strategies for managing CTS, referencing key studies and research.

Running head: CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME
CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME
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1CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME
Carpal tunnel syndrome is defend as the health condition that results in numbness,
tingling and pain in the arm and hand. The syndrome results due to compressing or squeezing
of the hand nerve known as median nerve. There are various types of physical examination
that is conducted for carpal tunnel syndrome includes Tinel’s sign test, two-point
discrimination test and Phalen’s sign test (Cooke & Duncan, 2017). The doctor or the health
care provider performs these above mentioned test in order to focus on the patient’s wrist,
hands, arms and neck. Presence of any numbness, tingling, pain or weakness exhibit the
presence of syndrome after conducting the physical examination. The median nerve present
in the hand or arm of the patient is compressed due to limited space and high pressure from
carpal tunnel that leads to alternation of the structure of median nerve and results in
entrapment. Alteration in the microvascular structure of the nerve takes place due to
compression of the nerve and results in biochemical disturbances that further reduces the
endoneurial blood flow and results in edema that in turn increases the diffusion space for
oxygen and leads to hypoxia condition. This abnormal condition results in axonal
deterioration of the median nerve followed by neuritis that is the primary symptom of carpal
tunnel syndrome (Aboonq, 2015).
There are various risk factors associated with the carpal tunnel syndrome that includes
hypothyroidism, gout, pregnancy, diabetes, distal radius fracture, rheumatoid arthritis, wrist
injury, alcoholism and obesity. There are various types of treatment available for carpal
tunnel syndrome that range from resting phase to repair phase. The most significant treatment
approach for the syndrome is resting for several weeks that would ease the inflammation
associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen or aspirin that
will reduce the pain and swelling among the patient. Other treatments include physical
therapy, yoga postures, corticosteroid infections, ultrasound, acupuncture, laser light therapy
treatments and carpal tunnel release surgery (Padua et al., 2016). There are various tips that is

2CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME
used for reducing the high risk of carpal tunnel syndrome like taking repeated breaks from
continuous task, stretching of wrist or wrist exercise and appropriate supervision from the
expert that will evaluate the workstation of the patient.
There are various non-surgical management or treatment approaches for preventing
the condition of carpal tunnel syndrome that includes physiotherapy, consumption of diuretic
medication, taking sufficient amount of rest for the exaggerated area, wearing splints over the
affected areas and providing appropriate injection to the patient that can either be anaesthesia
or corticosteroid in order to reduce or decrease the swelling (Kleopa, 2015). Hence, surgical
and non-surgical management of the syndrome can be considered as the appropriate health
promotion strategy for treating the condition of carpal tunnel syndrome. The alternative drug
therapy that can be used to treat the condition of carpal tunnel syndrome are using anti-
inflammatory drugs, diuretics and corticosteroids. Consumption of nutrient supplements,
herbs, massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy and physical medicine are used as an
alternative treatment therapy for treating the condition of carpal tunnel syndrome (El
Miedany, 2016).

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References
Aboonq, M. S. (2015). Pathophysiology of carpal tunnel syndrome. Neurosciences, 20(1), 4.
Cooke, M. E., & Duncan, S. F. (2017). History of carpal tunnel syndrome. In Carpal tunnel
syndrome and related median neuropathies (pp. 7-11). Springer, Cham.
El Miedany, Y. (2016). PROMs for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. In Patient Reported Outcome
Measures in Rheumatic Diseases (pp. 329-355). Springer, Cham.
Kleopa, K. A. (2015). Carpal tunnel syndrome. Annals of internal medicine, 163(5), ITC1-
ITC1.
Padua, L., Coraci, D., Erra, C., Pazzaglia, C., Paolasso, I., Loreti, C & Hobson-Webb, L. D.
(2016). Carpal tunnel syndrome: clinical features, diagnosis, and management. The
Lancet Neurology, 15(12), 1273-1284.