Dr. Modabber lends perspective as to concerning trend in injuries and what to look for.
Article Links: Carpal tunnel rates are up. Experts blame these 4 factors. (yahoo.com)
If you’ve ever experienced numbness or tingling in your hand or wrist or an urge to “shake out” your hands, these are all common signs of carpal tunnel syndrome, which affects up to 5% of the population. While wrist splints, cold packs and over-the-counter pain meds like ibuprofen can help, a growing number of people are turning to surgery for relief.
Each year, doctors perform 400,000 to 600,000 carpal tunnel release surgeries — one type of surgery used to treat the condition — making this one of the most common upper-extremity procedures. There has also been an explosion of growth in products to treat carpal tunnel syndrome, with the market expected to grow by nearly 6% over the next decade, making it a billion-dollar industry globally. In other words, treatments and therapies for carpal tunnel syndrome show no signs of slowing.
But why are so many people being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, and how bad does the condition have to be to get surgery for it? Hand and orthopedic surgeons explain.
The explosion of people working from home — and possibly typing more often on a computer than before — hasn’t helped, Dr. M. Ramin Modabber, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles, tells Yahoo Life. Remote employees often work in “less ergonomically friendly workstation setups” at home than they do in an office, raising the odds of developing the condition, he says. Modabber also notes that frequent smartphone use can increase a person’s chances of developing the syndrome.
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