Surgery Beats Splints For Carpal Tunnel

Rio writes: "A local6.com article tells us about a study that suggests surgery may be more effective than splints for treating carpal tunnel syndrome. In the study, 87 patients underwent open carpal tunnel release surgery, in which ligaments surrounding the median nerve are cut to relieve pressure on the nerve, compared to 89 patients who wore a splint for their wrists, which reduced movement. The researchers found that the surgery left 80 percent of patients significantly improved after three months. Splints left only 54 percent significantly improved."

Comments

Watch out with splints

[Otter]

Be careful with the splints. In my experience (anecdotal, obviously) people who tried splints for tendonitis or carpal tunnel problems quickly found themselves going from bad to worse, and improved when they abandoned the splints in favor of being careful.

My impression is that they can cause your muscles to atrophy and fall out of balance. Anyway, be careful with them.

A little bit of exercise.

[TheOnlyCoolTim]

I started to get the slight tingling and tightness in my wrists, so I found this exercise which I do a little bit and has made this go away.

1. Start with your arms straight out in front of you, the wrists roughly in a line with the arms, and the fingers relaxed.

2. Bend the wrist upwards as far as possible while also extending the fingers as far as possible. Hold for a count of 5.

3. Return the position in step 1.

4. Make a tight fist, then bend the wrist downwards as far as possible. Count to 5.

5. Return to the position in step 1, and this time hold it for a count of 5.

6. Repeat.

Tim

SunStation Ergonomic Keyboard

[ClioCJS]

There is an external adapter that allows you to use a Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard on a SparcStatin/Sun Solaris Box.

You can even mess with xmodmap and invert caps lock and control, the way it is supposed to be on those boxes.

It's $80. I think most of the money is the fact that Sun beeps come from the KEYBOARD not the pc speaker, so the adapter has to intercept ^G and beep itself (it does). Freaky stuff.

It also allows you to use a normal serial mouse (Crystal Trackball!!!!!!).

I forget the part number but if people email me and ask me I can look it up, and maybe even supply my xmodmap file if you're that lazy.

But it exists!

You will hold the envy of your crippled coworkers.