Treatment Options

Carpal tunnel syndrome can improve both with conservative and surgical treatment options. When a patient presents with carpal tunnel initially (depending on the severity of their symptoms) generally I would start with a period of immobilization with a wrist splint because by keeping the wrist in neutral position, that diminishes the pressure on the nerve because oftentimes patients will sleep with their wrists like this *Demonstrates* or like this *Demonstrates* or when they’re at work, their wrists will be like this *Demonstrates* or like this *Demonstrates*which aggravates the nerve. So by giving a patient a splint, that keeps them in neutral position and that can help with the symptoms. Another possible treatment option that I oftentimes do would be a cortisone injection. A cortisone is an anti-inflammatory, which you can inject into the carpal tunnel region, and that can be remarkably helpful for patients long-term. If that doesn’t help, then generally my treatment would be to get a nerve study to assess the severity of the carpal tunnel syndrome.