Mechanic's carpal tunnel

You've got a bunch of responses already, but I thought I'd just point out, mostly for the benefit of those who might be in the danger zone, what CTS is, and how you get it.

When you curl your fingers to make a fist, you're using muscles in the hand to do so. When you straighten them, however, you're using muscles in the arm, between the elbow and the wrist. Tendons run from these muscles down to your fingers, to pull them straight. These tendons run through a narrow passage inside the wrist, and all the nerves carrying signals to and from the hand run through the same passage. This passage is the carpal tunnel.

Repetitive motion will pull those tendons back and forth, back and forth through the tunnel, and if you're unlucky, this will cause them to become inflamed and swollen. They then squeeze the nerves in the tunnel with them, and you've got pain and numbness -- CTS.

When you have to do repetitive flexing of the fingers, as in typing, piano playing, or, in fact, various types of mechanical work, the key is to keep your wrist straight. This lets the tendons run as smoothly as possible through the carpal tunnel. If you've got your wrist bent at an angle, the tendons will be sliding around that bend, and will rub all the harder on the inside wall of the tunnel.

CTS surgery involves opening up the carpal tunnel to make more room for movement through it.

-tih

Reply to
Tom Ivar Helbekkmo
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Tom-when you make a fist muscles in your arms pull tendons connected to your fingers. When you straighten your fingers other muscles in your arms pull tendons connected to your fingers. I learned all about these tendon and muscle systems after I had tendons repaired. one tendon that curles my left index finger and another that extends my right thumb. When I curl my left hand fingers I can see scar tissue clinging to my tendons in my forearm move back and forth. ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com... | Actually Steve, while in college I did work as a mechanic's grunt for | two years, but that was in the days where impact wrenches were unknown | and you had to rely on your arm muscles to get the difficult tasks | done. Perhaps that was a was a blessing in disguise.

A few years ago an ergonomics person pointed out that you won't see many construction outfits using nailguns anymore. Seems that they started using them to alleviate the carpal tunnel caused by using hammers. However, they were snagging their hoses on stuff, wrenching their backs. Someone noticed that while carpal tunnel was expensive, it was something that could be fixed with known results, but back injuries were even more expensive and with mixed results as to whether or not you even get to keep your employees. Self powered nailguns are popular as a result, but they're a bit on the heavy side, and far from cheap for the small user. Seems you can't win for losing!

Reply to
carl mciver

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