Helping Hands Heal since 2005
From Dr. Z - Carpal tunnel syndrome specialist
Repetitive strain injuries of the wrist and hand are often a chronic condition. They develop over time because of excessive forces through the hand and wrist.
The risk of developing a repetitive stress (or strain) injury is increased with repetitive activities. These include prolonged high-intensity activity without rest, and activities that involve working in an awkward position or with poor posture.
The term "Repetitive Stress Injury" or RSI means exactly what it's name implies. That is, injuring yourself by repetitively stressing a joint. It also goes by many names. In fact, all of the terms are interchangeable. They represent a broad description of specific outcomes resulting from repetitively stressing a joint (or joints) to the point of damage. The more common names are:
This article describes repetitive stress injury of the wrist and hand, and what you might be doing to cause it. It also describes the most common reason for getting the disorder, namely,
poor posture.
Recommendations for adjusting your posture are provided. Doing so can both prevent and relieve symptoms.
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We use our wrists and hands more than other body parts. They are highly resilient and can take a beating. But when they’re pushed to the brink with repetitive use, they can suffer injury from mechanical stress. That’s why the arms, wrists, and hands suffer more often with repetitive stress injury. The most common wrist, hand, and arm RSI's result in conditions called:
*Technically speaking carpal tunnel syndrome is not a RSI. Rather, it’s more like a disease that you're either prone or not prone to getting. In other words, carpal tunnel syndrome lies dormant until you repetitively stress your hand. However, since most practitioners label carpal tunnel syndrome as a RSI, we will discuss it here.
A number of harmful activities can result in repetitive stress injury of the wrist and hand. The most common are listed below. For a complete list of those activities, see harmful activities here.
Rapid and forceful movements will cause repetitive stress injury in the hands and arms. In fact, repetitively using the hands is the most commonly cited factor for acquiring this condition.
Doctors implicate computer overuse, constant text messaging, and prolonged video gaming as among the most prevalent factors in producing new cases of repetitive stress injury.
On the other side of the spectrum, less forceful movements repeated over and over all day long are just as dangerous. The great example is sitting at a workstation and typing hour after hour.
The movements can accumulate enough tiny strains and irritations over time to cause significant trauma. This is the stress typically seen with keyboard users and graphic designers.
Less repetitive activities but involving heavy loads are common contributors to repetitive stress injury. These activities include construction work, furniture moving, weight lifting, and weight training.
They can produce sudden and severe stresses on tissues from the fingers to the back. In a short period of time, the strain accumulates, mostly on the fingers, hands, arms, and shoulders. The result can be just as devastating as any other injury, and may produce various painful symptoms.
Acute trauma to the hands and arms also can produce the exact same symptoms as classic repetitive stress injury. In contrast to the word “repetitive” in the definition, a “one time” force of extreme magnitude on a joint can cause the same symptoms as prolonged stress.
Car accidents are a good example. After car accidents people may have tendonitis-like pain in the neck, shoulder or arms. These symptoms tend to be longer-lasting.
Poor posture at your computer workstation has been implicated as one of the major contributors to the surge in repetitive stress injury. Poor posture while sitting at your workstation aggravates any repetitive motions while typing and using the mouse.
Poor posture is usually defined as pronounced slouching or hunching. Both can cause imbalances in the upper body's joints, leading to joint stress.
Day to day, these stresses accumulate. Over a period of months or years they can result in severe disability if you don't begin a good prevention program first.
Environmental factors are also key contributors of repetitive stress injury. Doctors commonly find temperature-induced injury in people who work or recreate in cold temperatures. Some people are more susceptible than others to this cause of trauma.
It’s thought that cold temperatures add stress to the normal forces on the hand. Therefore, when performing activities like driving or using a hand tool, the risk increases when doing so in the cold.
In addition, people who use vibrating tools like hand drills and power saws are vulnerable to repetitive stress injury. In fact, the incidence of tendonitis in jackhammer users is much higher than other power tool users.
Emotional stress, personality, depression, and fatigue also are factors associated with repetitive stress injury. While their contributions are not well understood, the link is nonetheless there.
We know that emotional stress and the inability to cope with tense situations can be a trigger. It can increase the chances of getting a repetitive stress injury while performing strenuous hand activities.
Fatigue may also be a contributing factor. But its effects on repetitive stress injury are even less well understood. You might be a person who pushes to work with your hands beyond the point that you’re tired. This puts you at risk of developing a stress related injury.
The good news is that injuries resulting from repetitively straining your wrist and hand can be prevented. The obvious advice is to avoid or restrict your repetitive activity. Simply look around and consider what kinds of things you do with your hands and arms that appear like repetitive stress or strain. Then find ways to minimize them.
Many jobs require that you use your hands repetitively. So only you can determine what is excessive and what isn’t.
People in seemingly different occupations like construction workers, guitarists, assembly line workers, transcriptionists, florists, and hairdressers have one thing in common. That is, they require excessive hand use and are at high risk of developing repetitive stress injury - and especially carpal tunnel syndrome. So think and observe where you can make changes to keep from overworking and overloading your hands.
Most people today are involved with computer keyboarding. And the most common reason people get repetitive stress injury is poor posture at their workstation. But it's the way you sit which causes the disorder.
Actually, sitting and using the keyboard and mouse is a widespread cause of RSI. As mentioned above, slouching and hunching postures are the main contributors.
Approximately 60% of computer workers suffer with RSI at one time or another. But there are good preventative measures you can take at the keyboard which are simple, cheap, and highly effective:
Repetitive Stress Injury of the wrist and hand is a term doctors use to describe the results of forceful or repetitive movements of the wrist, hand, and fingers. The straining forces can result from quick & soft movements or from slower & high load activities. Either way, these can stress your wrist and hand to the point of injury.
