facebook_pixel

ChiroTrust

The ChiroTrust Pledge

You are here: Home / Carpal Tunnel Syndrome / Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Chiropractic

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Chiropractic

by

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a very common problem. The American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) reported that in 2007, there were 330,000 carpal tunnel release surgeries performed. The main reason to have the surgery is to “open up” the tunnel. That is, the transverse carpal ligament or “floor” of the tunnel is released so the contents inside the tunnel are able to move more freely, reducing the pressure inside the tunnel. Essentially, this is the goal of any treatment (surgical or not): improving the depth of the tunnel, thus reducing the pressure from inside the tunnel allowing the tendons to slide better as the muscles on the palm-side forearm contract to move the nine tendons that pass through the tunnel and attach to the fingers and thumb. However, there are non-surgical methods for reducing the pressure within the tunnel that should be attempted first as surgery is always reported to be the “…last resort” for good reason. There can be surgical complications, the effects may be only partial, and there is an average of 30% grip strength loss following the transverse ligament surgical release. So, the question is, how can chiropractic approaches reduce the pressure inside the carpal tunnel without somehow changing the length of the transverse carpal ligament?

The roof of the tunnel is made up of two rows of four bones for a total of eight carpal bones that arch over the nine tendons that pass through the tunnel. The height of the tunnel is dependent on the position of those eight bones, especially three of the eight bones that make up the proximal row at the top of the cave. These are technically the lunate (located at the peak of the roof which tends to drop down lowering the roof of the tunnel), the scaphoid (located on the thumb side of the roof), and the triquetrum (located on the pinky side of the roof). The latter two bones tend to shift up and out and when the middle bone drops down, the tunnel flattens making the space tighter or smaller. This is how chiropractic adjustments of the wrist help. There are specific techniques doctors of chiropractic use to reposition the lunate and outer two bones that shift up and out. In addition, chiropractors can either tape or use an elastic wristband to hold the tunnel “open” after the adjustment.

The use of a night splint to keep the wrist in a straight or slightly “cocked-up” position is also highly beneficial as the pressure inside the tunnel goes up as much as 6-8x when CTS is present when the wrist bends to the end points of upward or downward bending. Also, your doctor of chiropractic will treat all the possible points of possible compression including the neck, shoulder, elbow, forearm, and wrist which ALWAYS gets better results than treating only the carpal tunnel.

Related Articles

 Can Losing Weight Really Help Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Losing weight is important to your health for a variety of reasons. Your heart health is especially affected by excess weight. Diabetes, stroke, and back pain are also more common in persons with excess weight. However, most of us do not have enough lean body mass and need to do something about changing our nutrition and exercise habits. In carp...
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Splints Wrist splints are often a beneficial form of CTS self-care, as they can assist in relieving the pressure within the carpal tunnel by restricting wrist flexion and extension. Because we cannot control the position of our wrist during sleep and the pressure on the nerve worsens the more it bends forwards or backwards, splints are most commonly used ...
Okay, What Really Causes Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Research has shown certain work practices and risk factors, such as being overweight, can elevate your risk for developing carpal tunnel symptoms. A doctor of chiropractic will often look to the spine when a patient has nerve pain. Many people with carpal tunnel syndrome have a history of a whiplash injury or other neck trauma. But how can a nec...
Can You Prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common of the many “entrapment neuropathies”— nerve pinches in the arms or legs—likely because we use our hands and fingers repetitively for long time frames at work and during many of our hobbies. In addition, the wrist is a very complicated joint because it’s not a simple ball-and-socket or hinge, like the...