Injuries to your median nerve in your forearm or wrist, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, cause numbness in your index and middle fingers along with other symptoms. Tight forearm muscles or hitting the ground with your golf club can lead to compression of your median nerve and numbness in your fingers. Treatment includes rest, corticosteroid injections and surgery. Consult your physician about the best treatment options for you.
Anatomy and Function
Your median nerve runs from you upper arm to the inside of your elbow and down into your forearm. The muscles and ligaments of your upper arm and forearm, such as your pronator teres muscle and ligament of Struthers, cover and protect your median nerve. At your wrist, your median nerve runs through the carpal tunnel formed by the ligaments and bones of your wrist. Your median nerve controls the sensations and movements of your thumb, index finger, middle finger and part of your ring finger.
Causes and Risk Factors
Overtraining, repetitive gripping of your golf club, taking a divot and tight forearm muscles can compress your median nerve, causing numbness of your index and middle fingers. Carpal tunnel syndrome refers to compression of the median nerve at your wrist, whereas pronator syndrome and anterior interosseous nerve syndrome refer to compression of the median nerve in your forearm. An inadequate warmup before playing golf, previous wrist and forearm injuries and a poor golf swing can increase your risk of compressing of your median nerve.
Additional Symptoms
Besides numbness and tingling, you may experience muscle weakness, pain and joint stiffness in your wrist, thumb, index finger and middle finger. Gripping, holding and lifting objects like a golf club can be difficult. You can also lose finger and hand coordination, and sustain permanent nerve damage if compression of your median nerve goes untreated. Muscle loss can also develop over time due to your inability to use your hand normally.
Treatment
Initial treatment includes rest and light stretches for your forearm, wrist and hand. Your physician may also recommend night-splinting your wrist, corticosteroid injections, anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy and surgery for severe cases. A 2010 article published in "International Journal of General Medicine" recommends pursing nonsurgical and less invasive treatment options before resorting to surgery. Surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome reduces the pressure on your median nerve, but it cannot reverse nerve damage.
Prevention
To prevent compression of your median nerve, avoid repetitive forearm and wrist movements, warm up before playing golf and allow adequate recovery time between golf matches. To warm up, perform wrist circles, wrist flexion and extension and windmills with your shoulder and arms. Consult your personal trainer or coach about improving your golf-club grip and golf-swing techniques. For example, avoid overswinging during your backswing.
Posted in: Golf Injuries