Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – Symptom Progression

Transcript

At some point, as the condition progresses, symptoms become more profound. Patients will no longer just experience intermittent numbness, but they start to have more pain and become weak as the motor portion of the nerve becomes affected. At that point, people traditionally seek out medical attention because it starts to affect their daily life on a really profound basis. As carpal tunnel symptoms progress from mild to more profound symptoms, the nerve compression is starting to affect the nerve itself. Initially, it’s only the environment that the nerve is in that’s producing mild symptoms. As that compression persists, the nerve can actually start to become damaged. When that happens, the symptoms go from being very tolerable and mild to becoming much more profound. People start to become weak. They drop objects, they have trouble buttoning buttons or turning keys because the muscles at the base of the thumb become weak. When that happens, it’s no longer a matter of simply managing the symptoms. When people start to lose function and their numbness and pain becomes severe, they require medical treatment.