Carpal tunnel syndrome
In order to understand what carpal tunnel syndrome is, we must first talk about the median nerve. The median nerve transmits sensation and supplies some of the muscles responsible for movement in the arm, wrist and hand. This nerve passes through the carpal tunnel to reach the hand.
Carpal tunnel: It is a tunnel located in the wrist and consists of the small bones of the hand and is surrounded from the front by a thick ligament at the wrist joint. Inside this tunnel, the median nerve and the tendons of the flexor muscles of the hand (the tendons responsible for gripping the fingers and thumb) pass.
Tendons of the flexor muscles of the fingers: shown in the picture in black and purple. These tendons are responsible for gripping the fingers of the hand.The tendon of the muscle responsible for flexing the thumb is shown in blue.
As for the median nerve, it is shown in the picture in yellow, and is covered from above by the carpal ligament.
As we can see in the picture, the median nerve supplies all fingers except the little finger. In carpal tunnel syndrome, there is pressure on the median nerve, and this pressure causes pain, numbness, and tingling in all fingers except the little finger. As I explained, this nerve supplies the flexor muscles of the fingers and thumb, and this pressure makes it difficult to use the hand.
