Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition in which there is pressure on the median nerve, i.e. the nerve in the wrist that supplies feeling and movement to parts of the hand. The most common symptom of this condition is a tingling feeling on the thumb’s side of the hand. At first, the tingling is only felt at times, especially in the morning when you wake up and try to find the right position for the hand affected. Patients also report pain referred to the fingers or to the elbow, clumsiness of the hand and a weakened grip.

What causes this condition often remains unclear. Sometimes, the syndrome results from the anatomical features of an individual, hand injuries, swelling in the carpal tunnel region, inflammations (rheumatism) or hormone imbalance (e.g. during pregnancy).

The patients sometimes fail to seek medical help in time. Long-term nerve compression may gravely affect the muscles of the hand: in advanced or long-term cases the muscle under the thumb starts wasting away, which leads to weakness and clumsiness of the hand.