What is Pain?

Pain is the body's warning system, alerting you that something is wrong. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines it as an unpleasant experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage to a person's body. Specialized nervous system cells (neurons) that transmit pain signals are found throughout the skin and other body tissues. These cells respond to things such as injury or tissue damage.

For example, when a harmful agent such as a sharp knife comes in contact with your skin, chemical signals travel from neurons in the skin through nerves in the spinal cord to your brain, where they are interpreted as pain.

Most forms of arthritis are associated with pain that can be divided into two general categories: acute and chronic. Acute pain is temporary. It can last a few seconds or longer but wanes as healing occurs. Some examples of things that cause acute pain include burns, cuts, and fractures. Chronic pain, such as that seen in people with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, ranges from mild to severe and can last weeks, months, and years to a lifetime.

What Is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)?

Carpal tunnel syndrome, or CTS, is a condition in which one of the major nerves that controls the functioning of the hand and fingers - the median nerve - becomes compressed inside a "tunnel" in the wrist. This can cause various symptoms including pain, numbness, tingling, or a "funny feeling" in the fingers, hand, or wrist.

What Is The Carpal Tunnel?

Carpal comes from carpus, the Latin word for wrist. The carpal tunnel is a small passage inside the wrist. Several fine bones of the wrist form the floor and sides of the tunnel. A ligament called the transverse carpal ligament, which arches over the bones, forms the roof of the tunnel.

Passing through this tunnel are:

• The median nerve, which conducts impulses, sent by the brain, down the arm and to the fingers
  
• The tendons of the finger flexor muscles, which allow the fingers to bend
  
• Arteries and veins
  

The median nerve supplies most of the feeling in the hand, particularly to the thumb, index and middle fingers, the thumb half of the palm and the outer side of the hand. It also controls the movement of many of the tendons that bend the fingers, allowing the hand to grasp objects as well as pinch.

Facts About Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

• Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) results in more than two million visits to physicians' offices each year.
• CTS strikes approximately three times as many women as men.