Monday, July 13, 2009

Insurance Companies Insist On Alternative Treatments Before Carpal Tunnel Surgery

By Tom Nicholson

Do you have a job that requires you to make the same motions with your hands and arms all day? Do you have a hobby like this that you indulge in daily? Things like this can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. Symptoms can include chronic pain, weakness, swelling, numbness, and tingling in the wrists, hands and elbows. Many people get surgery to relieve the pain, but there are other ways to treat it.

Surgery should only be used in the most extreme cases, when all other treatments have failed. Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by the median nerve becoming compressed. At the point where the transverse carpal ligament binds together the ligaments of the arm is where the median nerve becomes compressed. This is caused by the stress on the nerve by repetitive motion, and the hardening of the soft tissues in the hand.

If you have had no luck with other treatments, surgery might be your best option to remedy your carpal tunnel syndrome. But if your livelihood depends on your hands being operational, surgery could cause major problems. The recuperation time can be nearly 2 months, or longer in some cases. Plus, carpal tunnel surgery is not cheap. The procedure can cost upwards of $10,000.

Even though it is expensive, the surgery is considered a light surgery. A twilight anesthetic can be used, and the surgery is very un-invasive. But due to the fact that the hand is a very complex and delicate part of the body, healing takes a long time. Also, any surgery carried risks with it, so you need to be careful when considering whether you will have this surgery, and who will perform it.

Carpal tunnel surgery consists of the surgeon cutting the transverse carpal ligament. Severing this ligament completely relieves the pressure on the median nerve immediately. While this can bring instant relief, the ligament needs to heal, so you will probably not be able to go right back to work. Once your wrist is healed, you should experience less discomfort and a better range of motion, but there is a good chance that you will lose some of the strength in your hand.

You might be interested to know that you don't have to go through all of that to relieve your carpal tunnel syndrome. If you contact a therapist or look on the web, you'll see there are several very simple exercises you can use to loosen the transverse carpal ligament so that the pressure on the median nerve is released. Also, consider having your hands massaged so the soft tissue there remains relaxed. And finally, try to maintain good posture and ergonomic technique when you do your job, so the pressure on your hands and wrists are greatly reduced.

It might come as a shock that these other methods for preventing and curing carpal tunnel syndrome exist, but they do. Be careful when considering surgery because the results are not always predicable, and you can end up in a much worse situation than when you started.

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