Do you experience numbness or tingling in your thumb, index and middle fingers? This could be caused by compression of the median nerve.
The Median Nerve
The median nerve, comes down the front of the arm near the bicep’s muscle. It passes through the two heads of pronator teres, a muscle which turns your palm down towards the ground.
Compression here elicits numbness in the base of the thumb and pain with repetitive forearm motion. It is called pronator syndrome. This is a rare condition in comparison to the more common carpal tunnel syndrome, which is compression of the median nerve at the wrist.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome can cause abduction and numbness/tingling into the thumb, index, middle and half of the ring fingers. It is caused by repetitive strong gripping, or prolonged wrist flexion, and is often worse when sleeping at night.
Therapy would involve median nerve gliding exercises, avoiding positions of aggravation with splinting and activity modifications, reducing swelling and pain, and strengthening when appropriate.
Contact us today if you are having problems with your hand. We can tailor a program to suit your needs.