"Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
In Your Neck?"
Over
the decades, we have come to expect a pain or tingling in the hand and
wrist means there is a local injury in the area. Since many surgeries
are done each year on the wrist to relieve these symptoms, it seems
logical that this is the case. But many patients with "successful"
surgeries still have problems over time. Others only receive temporary
relief and the problem quickly returns. Other patients can develop wrist
and hand symptoms that mimic carpal tunnel syndrome, after a whiplash
injury or sprain/strain of the neck. These patients may not have any
trauma at all to the wrist and hand area but have severe hand pain. Why
does this occur?
One possibility is the carpal tunnel
diagnosis was incorrect. Because your body is interconnected with joints
and nerves, symptoms often occur at another location from that of the
actual problem. Taking this approach is more holistic, vs. the
often-fragmented medical view of things. We have doctors of the feet,
the eyes, and various other body parts. These types of specialists,
while often good at specific problems, can sometimes miss diagnoses that
are complex and involve multiple body systems.
More
and more research has shown this to be the case in carpal tunnel
patients. A study from 2006 looked at the spines of patients with carpal
tunnel syndrome. MRI's, x-rays, and nerve testing were done on patients
with carpal tunnel syndrome, and another group with referred pain from
the neck and into the wrist and hand. Another group of subjects, with no
symptoms at all, served as the control. The x-rays showed that
degeneration of the disks in the neck were present in both patient
groups. The MRI took things a step further, to see if the tiny holes
between the neck bones showed narrowing and a pincer effect on the
nerves.
This study showed that in carpal tunnel
syndrome there is often degenerative changes in the neck and supported
the "double-crush" nerve hypothesis. Seeing a doctor of chiropractic to
make sure that your wrist and neck is properly examined is key to proper
diagnosis. Without proper assessments, treatments are often
unsuccessful, especially surgery. Before embarking on the more invasive
option of surgery, consider conservative chiropractic care. If the
problem in your wrist is more a problem in your neck, specific wrist
treatments will be ineffective.