Carpal Tunnel Treatment
What Is Carpet Tunnel Syndrome?
Carpal tunnel syndrome most commonly presents as a numbness and tingling in your hand and arm. The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway surrounded by bones and ligaments on the inside of your hand. When this nerve is compressed you have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
What does treatment look like?
In order to diagnose carpal tunnel, you will have an ultrasound of the hand and wrist bone. An ultrasound is used to assess if there is swelling of the median nerve. It is also used in assessing the adjacent structures (such as joints and tendons), which could be irritating and/or compressing the nerve.
Once confirmed, we will use ultrasound to guide the placement of a needle into the carpal tunnel. We will then inject a small dose of corticosteroid (or ‘steroid’) and a local anesthetic medication. This will be done while at Portland Pain & Spine.
At this point, we will give you advice for care, after the injection. The wrist and hand should generally be rested completely for 6 hours, followed by minimal use for between 1 and 3 days.