Carpal Tunnel Surgery and 3 Risks to Consider When Choosing to Go Under the Knife
Carpal Tunnel Surgery is rightfully considered a last ditch option for a person suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
When other less invasive treatment methods fail, surgery is the next and last option.
When considering whether to have the surgery, there are 3 dangers that you must be aware of.
Risk #1: The nerve being nicked, cut, or completely severed.
There is a ligament covering the carpal tunnel that surgeons cut to free up space and remove constriction of the nerve as it passes through the carpal tunnel.
The Median Nerve is directly under this taught band of connective tissue.
There is a very real danger of the cutting motion accidentally.
This, obviously is a problem.
There are plenty of cases of the Median Nerve being completely cut in half, accidentally.
Oops.
Even a nick into the nerve is going to be a real, long lasting problem.
The flip side to this is, due to being extra careful, the surgeon may not cut the connective tissue enough and there will be no release, thus you will get all the trauma of the surgery with none of the benefit, and eventually a second surgery will be recommended since the first one failed.
Risk #2: If you get active with your hand too soon, you can cause damage.
Just last week I hear a story from a woman who had had the surgery on her wrist just one day earlier, and her doctor had told her she could immediately start using her hands.
This is a bad idea.
Surgery cuts into your skin and through layers of connective tissue.
A ligament is cut.
This is small but significant trauma to your system.
The Inflammation Response is huge.
Trust me.
Using your hands too soon, making the structure work before enough healing happens is a recipe for much more pain in the future.
And it can eliminate any benefit the surgery may provide.
Give yourself some time to heal, even if you are anxious to use your hands again.
Carpal Tunnel Surgery is not a magic bullet.
It is not an instant fix.
Take it easy on your wounded wrist, or you'll pay for it sooner and later.
Risk #3: Scar tissue formation tightening the structure right back up again.
When your skin, connective tissue, and ligament are cut, the body does what it does for every injury.
It kicks in an Inflammation Process and starts laying down scar tissue to heal the wound.
The important thing to know about scar tissue, is that as it binds the wound, it effectively pulls the tissue it connects to together.
This basically tightens the tissue.
So one irony of this kind of wrist surgery is that the surgery is supposed to free up tissue, but the scar tissue that forms as a result of the surgery tightens tissue back up.
So if you don't take that into account with the after surgery self care, scar tissue formation could take away some or all of any benefit you get from the surgery.
There are more risks, of course, but the above three risks are serious dangers that you must take into account when deciding whether Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery is your best option.
When other less invasive treatment methods fail, surgery is the next and last option.
When considering whether to have the surgery, there are 3 dangers that you must be aware of.
Risk #1: The nerve being nicked, cut, or completely severed.
There is a ligament covering the carpal tunnel that surgeons cut to free up space and remove constriction of the nerve as it passes through the carpal tunnel.
The Median Nerve is directly under this taught band of connective tissue.
There is a very real danger of the cutting motion accidentally.
This, obviously is a problem.
There are plenty of cases of the Median Nerve being completely cut in half, accidentally.
Oops.
Even a nick into the nerve is going to be a real, long lasting problem.
The flip side to this is, due to being extra careful, the surgeon may not cut the connective tissue enough and there will be no release, thus you will get all the trauma of the surgery with none of the benefit, and eventually a second surgery will be recommended since the first one failed.
Risk #2: If you get active with your hand too soon, you can cause damage.
Just last week I hear a story from a woman who had had the surgery on her wrist just one day earlier, and her doctor had told her she could immediately start using her hands.
This is a bad idea.
Surgery cuts into your skin and through layers of connective tissue.
A ligament is cut.
This is small but significant trauma to your system.
The Inflammation Response is huge.
Trust me.
Using your hands too soon, making the structure work before enough healing happens is a recipe for much more pain in the future.
And it can eliminate any benefit the surgery may provide.
Give yourself some time to heal, even if you are anxious to use your hands again.
Carpal Tunnel Surgery is not a magic bullet.
It is not an instant fix.
Take it easy on your wounded wrist, or you'll pay for it sooner and later.
Risk #3: Scar tissue formation tightening the structure right back up again.
When your skin, connective tissue, and ligament are cut, the body does what it does for every injury.
It kicks in an Inflammation Process and starts laying down scar tissue to heal the wound.
The important thing to know about scar tissue, is that as it binds the wound, it effectively pulls the tissue it connects to together.
This basically tightens the tissue.
So one irony of this kind of wrist surgery is that the surgery is supposed to free up tissue, but the scar tissue that forms as a result of the surgery tightens tissue back up.
So if you don't take that into account with the after surgery self care, scar tissue formation could take away some or all of any benefit you get from the surgery.
There are more risks, of course, but the above three risks are serious dangers that you must take into account when deciding whether Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery is your best option.