Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a painful condition that results when an
important nerve is regularly disturbed. CTS stars slowly with pain, weakness, or
numbness in the hand and wrist. Eventually the pain moves up the arm to other
parts. CTS is viewed as one of the types of repetitive motion injuries. It frequently
occurs in the hand and wrist
Main Points
Causes of Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel can be worse:-
• If the wrist is over-extended repeatedly
• By repeated motions of your wrists
• By poor positioning of your wrists when using a keyboard or mouse
• From prolonged exposure to vibrations from using hand and power tools
Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel
• The hands frequently falling asleep
• Numbness, tingling and pain in your thumb and first three fingers
• Pain and burning that travel up the arm
• Wrist pain at night that interferes with sleep
Discussion Points
Preventing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Rest your hand periodically
• Recognise that tasks like electrical work and inserting caulking in windows require
repetitive bending and flexing of the fingers and wrists that can lead to CTS
• Distribute the grip across the muscle from the base of the thumb to the little finger
rather than just the centre of the palm, when using hand tools like screwdrivers or paint
brushes
• Wear gloves to lessen the shock when using vibrating tools such as chippers or
hammers.
• Minimise repetition of any movement and vary the position of the arm when performing
an activity
• Keep your wrists in a neutral position rather than bent forward or backward to decrease
pressure on the nerves
• Use a Palm and wrist rest when using a keyboard.
Computer users with Carpal Tunnel or Tendonitis will have pain or other sensations in the hand,
wrist, forearm when using the mouse, keyboard or your smart phone. Computer users often
unconsciously hold their mouse arm or hand in a fixed tensed position for extended periods as
they are reading/working at the computer which may be significant in the cause.
Using a lightweight wrist brace provides compression, warmth and immobilisation, this relieves
pressure in the carpal tunnel and provides relief to wrist injury symptoms.
