You are currently viewing Carpal Tunnel Test & Best Treatment

Carpal Tunnel Test & Best CTS Treatment Without Injections Or Surgery

Learn about the carpal tunnel test & best treatment options from Malaysia’s award-winning chiropractic 7 physiotherapy center. Our Carpal tunnel treatment programs are through specialized methods & breakthrough technology. Let us give you the lasting relief you need from carpal tunnel pain; contact one of our centers tdoay!

Why You Need A Carpal Tunnel Test?Man holding wrist in pain due to carpal tunnel syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Test is a critical step in getting rid of the pain and symptoms of carpal tunnel. An Accurate carpal tunnel test is essential to the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome. Additionally, proper evaluation, assessments, and diagnostics tests are needed to ensure a diagnosis-based treatment that targets the root cause of carpal tunnel syndrome. In this section, we will go over the procedures and methods used in the carpal tunnel test. Also, we will provide you with a simple assessment you can do at home.

Why Does The wrist & Finger Hurt Or Become Numb?

CTS or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome’s classic symptoms include numbness, tingling, pain, burning sensation, or weakness in the wrist and hand. Pins and needles sensations are common. The pins and needles sensations (numbness and burning sensations) can co-occur with pain in the injured thumb, index finger, middle finger, and half of the fourth finger. Nerve pain and pins and needles result from repetitive injuries that increase the pressure on the wrist’s sensitive nerves.

In severe cases, carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms (CTS) can radiate or be shot into the wrist and lower forearm. At times, symptoms may be relieved temporarily by shaking the hand. Conditions such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and pregnancy are more likely to cause carpal tunnel syndrome or carpal tunnel-like symptoms. Carpal tunnel syndrome is just as common as is back pain during pregnancy in expecting mothers.

Moreover, carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that leads to the irritation of the nerves that control the function of your wrist, hand, and fingers. Before the nerve enters the hand, it must pass through a canal or channel called the carpal canal or carpal tunnel. In basic terms, this canal is a passageway on the palmar aspect of your wrist. The carpal canal boundaries are the wrist’s tiny bones and a tendinous sheet on top called the flexor retinaculum.

infographic on carpal tunnel msucles,ligaments, bones, blood vessels & median nerveFlexor Retinaculum, Wrist Pain & CTS Assessment

The flexor retinaculum (better known as the anterior annual ligament or the transverse carpal ligament) arches over the wrist bones. The importance of this canal can never be overstated. The carpal canal is a passageway and housing and anchoring for the tendons that enable hand, wrist, and finger movements. Nine tendons, including the flexor digitorum profundus, vessels (artery and vein), and a nerve (median nerve), are housed within the carpal canal (carpal tunnel).

Repetitive hand movements, trauma, or prolonged wrist extension can irritate the flexor retinaculum as well as one or more of the tendons that pass through the carpal tunnel. An irritated flexor retinaculum or chronic tendonitis of the wrist can lead to the thickening of the ligaments and tendons that run through the flexor retinaculum. Hypertrophy refers to a thickened flexor retinaculum, tendons, or muscles. Hypertrophy of the flexor retinaculum or one of the nine tendons is the leading cause of pain, numbness, or burning sensations in the wrists or fingers.

The carpal tunnel diagnostic tests are incomplete without a proper assessment of your flexor retinaculum. If you suffer from the symptoms mentioned above, the need for proper assessments is critical to your recovery. We will go through the basics of a carpal tunnel. We discuss some of the carpal tunnel tests to assess the flexor retinaculum’s vulnerability as related to the carpal tunnel in the coming sections of this page.

What Is the Best Wrist Pain Exam You Can Do At Home?

This section will go over some basic carpal tunnel syndrome tests that you can easily do at home. Please read the instructions carefully. Keep in mind that these tests are meant to help you understand your condition better. To accurately diagnose carpal tunnel syndrome, you will need a proper examination by one of our clinicians. Clinicians use the following quick tests to assess the entrapment of the median nerve:

  • Tinel’s Test or the Tinel Sign
  • Phalen’s Test
  • Reverse Phalen’s Test
  • Pinch Test

Remember that these tests and maneuvers discussed below are not meant to help you self-diagnose a health condition.

Tinel’s Test Or Tinel’s Sign: A Great Test That Assesses The Actual Cause Of Your Wrist Symptomsinfographic on how to do the tinel's sign or test for carpal tunnel syndrome

Tapping the palmar side of your wrist where the median nerve lies to reproduce the carpal tunnel symptoms is called a Tinel sign or test. This test is meant to increase the pressure within the canal of Guyon. If issues exist, pain or pins and needles sensations are produced. A positive test with Tinel sign or Tinel’s test increases numbness, tingling sensation, electrical shock, or pain in the fingers or the hand.

Phalen’s Test: Another Great Wrist Assessment Procedure

infographic on phalen maneuver for CTS

Phalen’s test is an excellent method for evaluating carpal tunnel syndrome. Flexing or bending the wrist to about 90 degrees and holding the position for one minute comprises Phalen’s test. This maneuver reduces the carpal tunnel or canal’s size, causing a compressive force on the wrist’s median nerve. A positive Phalen’s test is present if there is a reproduction of the pins and needles or wrist pain.

Reverse Phalen’s Test, Assesses For Hand & Wrist Syndrome

infographic on reverse phalen test for CTS

The Reverse Phalen’s test is another great indicator used as a carpal tunnel test. The reverse Phalen’s test involves the extension of the wrist to about 90 degrees. You should maintain this position for one minute. Carpal tunnel syndrome or CTS can be suspected if symptoms such as pain, numbness, tingling, or burning sensation (pins and needles) in the hands or fingers are reproduced. Stretching of the median nerve in healthy individuals is asymptomatic (not painful), but it often irritates a hyper-sensitive median nerve.

Pinch Test Is Great Means Of Assessing A CTS

The pinch test can also be done as a carpal tunnel test at home. Pinching and holding an object with the thumb and index finger may show some weakness. In other words, if you have difficulty pinching and holding the object, it is considered a positive test. In other words, you may have carpal tunnel syndrome.

What Are The Best clinical Diagnostic Tests To Identify The Actual Cause Of Your Wrist Or Hand Symptoms?

Nerve conduction tests by a neurologist for carpal tunnel syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition resulting from the irritation or malfunction of the median nerve. The best clinical means of assessing the function of the median nerve is a nerve test.

The nerve conduction study or tests are assessments performed for carpal tunnel patients by a neurologist. Remember that neurologists are not surgeons but specialists specializing in assessments, diagnostic tests, and nerve disorders treatments. However, often, a neurologist refers patients for surgery. In our opinion, carpal tunnel surgery is one treatment that has failed too often and should be avoided as such. Before we talk about carpal tunnel syndrome treatment, let’s review the nerve conduction test basics or other diagnostic tests that a neurologist performs on suspected carpal tunnel patients.

Nerve conduction tests are variations of electromyography, where two or more self-adhesive electrodes are used to assess the median nerve’s health. The examiner then uses an electrode to pass a few electrical impulses to study the median nerve’s conductivity. If your median nerve is irritated or damaged, the speed through which the current passes will be slower and, as such, a confirmation of your carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) diagnosis.

Can You Get CTS Like Symptoms From A Slipped Disc?

Aside from wrist issues, the neck is the most common source of the pins and needles sensations most feel in the wrist, hand, and fingers. So, the answer is YES; a Slip-Disc in the neck can cause carpal-tunnel-like pain and symptoms. As mentioned earlier, the median nerve is implicated in carpal tunnel issues. The Median nerve is part of the brachial plexus. The brachial plexus collects or network of nerves from C5, C6, C7, and T1 spinal segments. Spinal disc issues such as a slipped disc or bony malpositioning of spinal bones (subluxations) can pinch nerve roots that form the median nerve or brachial plexus. Slipped disc at C5-C6 or C6-C7 slip-disc is a common cause of CTS like-symptoms.

A pinched nerve in the neck often results in neck pain, upper back pain, and pain in the arms, wrists, hands, and fingers. Also, pins and needle-like sensations are exceedingly common in slipped disc conditions. Therefore, a carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis should be made when other structures such as the shoulders and elbows are ruled out as causes.

What Are Other Structures Assessed In A CTS Examinations?

Diagnosis of carpal tunnel is incomplete without the proper evaluations of the elbow, shoulder, and, of course, the neck. An impingement syndrome at any of these sites can lead to or mimic a carpal tunnel-like syndrome. It is not uncommon to have neck pain & upper back problems coupled with carpal tunnel syndrome. The anterior (front) muscles of your neck and upper chest can also contribute to the development or worsening of carpal tunnel syndrome. Muscles of the neck and upper chest can compress the brachial plexus. Compression of the brachial pleases by these muscles is referred to as the  Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.

Therefore, your doctor must check the neck, shoulder, or cervical to look for nerve impingements at other sites. All the abnormalities have to be treated simultaneously to achieve the best clinical result. A slip-disc in the neck can compress nerve roots that control the wrist.

Why Would Your Shoulder, Arms & Elbows Need Thorough Assemsnts If You Have Pins & Needles?

Shoulder, arm, and elbow conditions such as bursitis and tendonitis can also cause pins-and-needles-like sensations. Repetitive injuries to the elbow can increase the median nerve’s pressure, as seen with a golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow. We mentioned earlier that the median nerve is part of the brachial plexus. We forgot to mentions that this nerve could get trapped in the neck, shoulders, elbows, or forearm as it makes its way to the wrist. Compression of the median nerve at any of the mentioned sites leads to pins and needles and pain in wrists, mimicking or causing carpal tunnel-like pain and symptoms. In short, if you suffer from pins and needles or carpal tunnel, visit our non-surgical experts.

Our clinical teams of chiropractors and physical therapists or physiotherapists have the skills, knowledge, and technology to treat and diagnose carpal tunnel with ease. We offer non-surgical treatments and methods that others do not. As such, our clinical successes are higher than others.

What Should You Do With A Diagnosis Of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

Well, don’t opt for carpal tunnel surgery. It fails too often. It causes more scar tissue, and as mentioned, scar tissue is the cause of carpal tunnel. Non-surgical conservative treatment of the wrist or other structures (if needed) is your best option. Physical therapy (physiotherapy) offers hope, but the impact of care you get from physical therapy is enhanced if combined with CSC’s advanced forms of clinical chiropractic. And that is exactly what we offer. Our integrative conservative physiotherapy combined with chiropractic treatment is better suited for the short and long term. Best of all, the technologies we use in our center can certainly impact the rate of your recovery.

CTS’s most efficient physiotherapy or physical therapy devices for carpal tunnel syndrome are High-Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT) & shockwave therapy. Our Kuala Lumpur chiropractic center utilizes this device for faster recovery. Also, wrist splints and Cryotherapy (icing) can help minimize the inflammatory processes within the wrist. Our clinical teams will provide you with the perfect wrist splints and provide comprehensive home care instructions. Wrist splints and home care (Ice and exercise) are critical to decreasing the wrists’ inflammatory processes. Wrist exercises and exercises specifically for the carpal tunnel are great, but they must be focused and targeted.

CSC provides the best non-invasive Carpal Tunnel treatment program in Malaysia to fix & repair the cause of your pain. Contact one of our centers to get information on the carpal tunnel test & holistic CTS Treatment that get you better without Injections or surgery today!

Leave a Reply