Most everyone has heard about carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a pinched nerve at the wrist. The median nerve is the nerve that controls the first 3 or 4 fingers. This nerve enters the hand by passing between the bones of the wrist through a very narrow channel called the carpal tunnel. If anything causes that carpal tunnel to close in on the nerve, or for the nerve to swell within that carpal tunnel, the nerve becomes pinched or irritated. The nerve function is then reduced and the hand develops numbness, pain, weakness, and other very strange symptoms.