Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is one of a class of injuries called RSI's (Repetitive Stress Injury). It's true that typists and computer users are often affected by RSIs, but so are factory workers and anyone else who performs repetitive actions in their job - including musicians. It affects about 1 in 100 people at some point in their life. Men and women of any age can develop it, but it is most common in women in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

	Symptoms usually start gradually, with a tingling or numb feeling in the hand, usually just in the thumb and the first three fingers
	Shooting pains in the wrist, forearm, and sometimes extending to the shoulder, neck, and the chest
	Difficulty clenching the fist or grasping small objects
	Sometimes, dry skin and fingernail deterioration

Women are three times more likely than men to develop carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome usually occurs only in adults.

During 1998, an estimated three of every 10,000 workers lost time from work because of carpal tunnel syndrome. Half of these workers missed more than 10 days of work. The average lifetime cost of carpal tunnel syndrome, including medical bills and lost time from work, is estimated to be about $30,000 for each injured worker.

The wrist is a complicated, vulnerable joint. The median nerve-which runs from the forearm to the fingertips and controls movements of the fingers and thumb-passes through a tunnel formed by carpal bones and a tough layer of ligaments. If the median nerves is stress or pinched, your fingers feel numb or tingly and you may lose feeling in your hand.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is often the result of a combination of factors that increase pressure on the median nerve and tendons in the carpal tunnel, rather than a problem with the nerve itself.

Thee carpal tunnel is a deep groove on the palmar surface of the carpal bones, underneath the flexor relinaculum. Through it pass the long flexor tendons and the median nerve; the latter supplies the muscles of thethenar eminence and the shaded area of cutaneous senstain shown on the lfe. The hand on the right has palmar erythema and alrophy of the abductor policis brevis and opponens pollicis caused by median nerve compression.

People who make receptive movements, such keyboard operators, are often affected. This syndrome is more common in women who are pregnant, menopausal, taking oral contraceptives, or who experience premenstrual syndrome, and in people with an underachieve thyroid.