How to Relieve Carpal Tunnel with Physical Therapy

A lot of people complain of pain and numbness in their hands and fingers, especially those who work desk jobs or handheld tools all day. These are common symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome—but what exactly is this condition, and how does it happen? 

I am Lauren Masi, physical therapist and Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. I’m also the owner and Clinical Services Director of Bay Area Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy. Today we’re going to talk about what carpal tunnel syndrome is and how to relieve your symptoms with physical therapy. 

What Is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

Your carpal tunnel is located in the area of your wrist where your forearm meets your hand. Inside your wrist, there are small bones called carpal bones that form a ring around your wrist. And there’s a hole (or a tunnel) that allows tendons from your forearm to pass through the ring of carpal bones into your hand. That is your carpal tunnel.  

Your median nerve also passes through the carpal tunnel from your forearm into your hand. This nerve allows you to control your forearm and hand and receive sensory information like heat, pain, or pressure. When this nerve gets compressed or irritated, it can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. 

Common Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

People with carpal tunnel syndrome will often report symptoms in their hands and fingers. These symptoms include: 

• Numbness 
• Tingling
• Burning
• Weakness

These symptoms usually extend into the thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. Sometimes it can extend to the ring finger or even your whole hand. 

Physical Therapists Can Diagnose Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Oftentimes, carpal tunnel can be misdiagnosed. Sometimes symptoms from neck nerves can refer things down the arm, into the carpal tunnel area, and into the thumb and fingers. This can make people think they have carpal tunnel when it might actually be a diagnosis from up above that needs to be treated in the neck. 

One of the things that we are lucky enough to have here is a musculoskeletal ultrasound. That helps us really make sure we’re addressing the correct cause of the symptoms that someone is bringing forth. With the ultrasound, I can look at the integrity of the nerve and see if it looks a little bit swollen, or if it’s tapering down as it passes through the carpal tunnel. This lets us make sure that we’re treating the right thing. We can also use nerve conduction studies to ensure that your symptoms are coming from the wrist area.

What Can Cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

Sometimes, carpal tunnel pain can be worse at night because lying down can put more pressure on the median nerve, depending on how you sleep. If that is the case, we offer night splinting that can help hold your hand in a more neutral position to minimize that compression in that area. 

People can also feel carpal tunnel symptoms due to pregnancy. When your blood volume increases to support the growing baby and their blood volume, the little artery that passes through your carpal tunnel swells as well and puts pressure on your median nerve. Usually, that type of carpal tunnel goes away after delivery. 

Another common cause of carpal tunnel syndrome is poor ergonomics at your workstation. If you’re typing and resting your wrist in an odd position, that can sometimes result in symptoms. Or if you’re doing a lot of gripping activities using tools for manual labor, that overuse of consistent gripping can lead to inflammation and irritation of those tendons. That can lead to swelling and irritate the median nerve.  That makes them swell, taking up more space in that very narrow area and thus irritating that median nerve. 

How Physical Therapy Can Alleviate Pain from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Once we ensure that we get to the root cause of the symptoms and we determine that it is carpal tunnel, we’ll know where to begin with treatment. In physical therapy, we’ll begin with stretching those tendons that pass through that area. This might include some soft tissue massage work through the forearm. Then we’ll work on strengthening the upper shoulders, upper arms, and other muscles to alleviate some of the strain from the tendons and muscles in your forearm and wrist.

Another treatment we’re lucky to have here is a Class IV laser. This treatment helps to decrease inflammation, reduce pain, and allow you to better participate in physical therapy and get back to function easily. 

And most importantly, to make sure that your carpal tunnel syndrome doesn’t return, we’ll do activity modifications. We have to make sure that whatever led to the onset of this condition is handled. That could just be a quick ergonomics check of your desk setup, or we may look at the way you use your tools or the way you play a sport. 

Schedule a Consultation at Bay Area PT

When we know the root cause of your carpal tunnel syndrome, we can fix it and prevent it from returning. If you’re interested in physical therapy to help you relieve your carpal tunnel symptoms, please call our front desk today at (925) 284-3840.