Tunnel Syndrome: Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention

In today's office it is difficult for an employee to present without a computer, it is those who for a long time sits in the fading of a computer, are exposed to the syndrome. Of course, do not panic about an office employee, in addition to this profession, you can list a number of other works, thanks to which the tunnel syndrome is acquired. These are the most common: drivers, cashiers, photographers and musicians.

What is Tunnel Syndrome

Tunnel syndrome begins to form in the tissues of the hand, due to the infringement of the median nerve, it is he who is responsible for the correct and accurate movement of the hands. The nerve itself is located between the bones, tendons and muscle tissue, thus passing through a kind of tunnel, from which it is so called, a tunnel syndrome. When the hands appear edema from the same position of the hands, the tissues become inflamed and swollen squeeze this nerve, as a result, the nerve is dead and impulses do not pass through it.

Symptoms are fairly simple and difficult to miss, becausesensations in the brush are very unpleasant, most often this numbness of the fingertips sometimes and all the fingers, also feels tingling in the limbs. In addition, with a sharp movement of the brush can even slip through the pain, often the hands lose sensitivity, especially such symptoms are felt in the forefinger and thumb. It happens with prolonged fading and sharp movement, the pain is felt in the wrist or the weakness is felt in the wrist. The syndrome develops a long time and in stages, so its initial stage is difficult to catch, the symptoms can appear rarely, more often after a long day at work or at the end of the day. But then the symptoms of pain and numbness will appear more and more and the pain manifests itself so much that it becomes difficult to move the brush because of the pain that does not pass very long. Often patients suffer at night, when physical activity falls and pain is felt especially strongly.

Of course, this is not a fatal syndrome, however, the problem does not get less from this, because it is a constant pain that torments, and secondly, so it is possible to lose work because of the inability to work. In addition, if the syndrome is complicated, then the brush is deprived of activity, it is impossible even to take a handle in the hand or a spoon for eating, the hand is simply not able to hold even light loads.

When the stage of the tunnel syndrome reaches a peak, then atrophy of the muscle tissue of the brush occurs, which leads to complete immobilization of the brush,all functions are completely lost, it is also called a predatory hand or a monkey's paw.

Diagnosis by yourself

Self diagnosis is a dangerous activity, there are some diseases that can cause something similar with painful symptoms of tunnel syndrome, for example, cervical osteochondrosis. It is for this reason that it is not necessary to draw conclusions, but to turn to specialists and undergo a survey.

In addition to similar symptoms, there are diseases that will help the syndrome to develop more quickly, these are problems with the endocrine system and diabetes, so it will not be superfluous to detect them. However, if you still suspect the presence of the disease, then there are some ways to conduct the check itself and make sure that the tunnel syndrome does take place. After that, you need to see a doctor.

To determine there are several tests, one of them is the Tinnel test. To do this, tap lightly on the wrist in the middle, for this you need a tool like the hammer of a neurologist, but in the home setting the back of the spoon will do. In moments tapping at the tips of the finger should be felt tingling in especially acute cases even a sensation of sharp pain.

There is also another method of self-diagnosis, it's a test of Falen. It is necessary to straighten or bend the brush at a right angle, as much as possible, now mark the time. If a minute has not passed and a tingling or pain has appeared, then the answer is yes, there is a disease, tk.with a normal arm, something like this can appear only after a minute and then not always.

Doctors have their own methods and tests for more accurate diagnosis of the disease.

Tunnel Syndrome and Treatment Methods

Most often, the treatment of the syndrome takes a long time due to the fact that the tunnel syndrome is often in chronic form, there are occasional relapses that will have to be treated all life. All methods of treatment are reduced to one, it is necessary to limit as much as possible those actions that cause damage to the median nerve. Then it is necessary to eliminate the inflammatory process and to carry out the rehabilitation of the brush in order to return all the functionality. The effectiveness of treatment will depend on the degree of development of the disease and with what acute form the patient asked for help.

If the pain is acute, then it is necessary: ​​

• to fix the painful brush so that it does not move, there are enough methods for this, you can apply a tight bandage or apply a bandage;
• the doctor must prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs, and also pain relievers, as a rule, a group of NSAID drugs is needed. Depending on the medicine, injections can be done in the wrist or applied together with electrophoresis;
• if such methods did not help, then use anti-inflammatory drugs of the steroid group, which, in the form of injections, are injected into the hand together with anesthesia.

When it came to defeat severe pain, you need to continue treatment with a variety of physiotherapy, you also need a set of special gymnastics, all procedures should help restore tissues. In addition, it is necessary to remove inflammation, it is highly recommended to carry out powerful therapy with vitamins, there are cases of using acupuncture, which is also effective, although a doctor's recommendation is needed for this.

The fact is that if the syndrome is in a fairly neglected form, then the usual methods no longer work, or rather they can help only for a while, and then there are no other options but to do the operation. There are several types of operations, but their main task is to remove the fragment that squeezes or affects the median nerve, in this case the treatment is effective and the syndrome does not return even if it was in chronic form. Naturally, this operation is very painful in terms of rehabilitation, for a very long time the wound is tightened, becauseThe place is mobile, in addition the ligaments and muscle will recover more than a month, and sometimes more than two.

Prevention

It is known that the best treatment is prevention, so use the tips below:

• for a computer it is preferable to work without a mouse using the touchpad control;
• if the mouse is very necessary, then try to keep the brush straight, and also make sure that the brush does not hang over the surface, but lay on the table and away from the edge;
• is recommended to have armchairs with armrests;
• try to purchase hand-friendly mice, buy or make support or lining under the brush;
• if you work for a laptop on a debt, it is better to connect a convenient keyboard from a regular computer, becausethe cursor control in the laptop is very inconvenient for the thumb and it gets very tired;
• regularly, once a hour take breaks and knead brushes, develop for yourself the gymnastics of brushes, depending on how difficult your work is, especially pay attention to a hand that is constantly in a monotonous position;
• necessarily do gymnastics for brushes, compressing and unclenching fingers, similar methods are known from school, you can use a rubber expander for a brush, beads for fingering fingers and other things. Rotational movements with brushes are simply necessary;
• if the hands are constantly experiencing a long load, then they need to warm up before work, doing gymnastics, you can also do warming up in warm water, just half an hour before the work starts, draw warm water into the bath and warm up the brush.