Diagnoses of Repetitive Strain Injury

Completing the same task over and over so stress affects the part of the body used causes repetitive strain injury. An example of this is using a screwdriver, if you keep using the screwdriver without a break, you feel your wrist become restricted and you feel pain, you may also experience the loss of movement, this is the start of repetitive strain injury.

Repetitive strain injury, or should we say the group of syndromes that make up repetitive strain injury only affects the back, neck and arms (including the wrists and hands).

A lot of people may suffer with repetitive strain injury without even realizing it. If you are working on an assembly line, or you're an avid musician who can't put their guitar down then you have probably had pains in your wrists or arms that you explained as being tired. These pains are more than likely the starting symptoms of repetitive strain injury.

The problem medical professionals have with diagnosing repetitive strain injury is the fact that is can be difficult to judge the symptoms, after all repetitive strain injury is just a name given to a group of different conditions that are all related in some way to the affects we attribute to repetitive strain injury. Not only do we have this issue, we also have the problem that some of the symptoms associated with repetitive strain injury are found in other, more dangerous conditions such as angina.

Even though repetitive strain injury only affects the upper torso and limbs (back, arms, wrists and hands), the symptoms can actually appear in the lower half of the body; this is due to the vertebral nerves that can be affected in some cases so the pains appear in the legs.

Out of all the syndromes that make up the condition called repetitive strain injury the most common syndrome to be diagnosed is carpal tunnel syndrome.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that affects the median nerve located in the carpal canal in the wrist, when the same movement is carried out frequently it can cause the tendons also located in the carpal canal to become inflamed and compress the nerve causing pain and tightness causing loss of movement.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most famous out of all the syndromes that make up repetitive strain injury because it affects a lot of people who spend long periods on the computer without supporting their wrists correctly.

There are some conditions that the every day layman may be aware of, like tennis elbow, which is officially called lateral epicondylitis or golfers elbow, which is called medial epicondylitis.

If you suffer with pains, aches, stiffness, numbness or tingling sensations in your back, arms, wrists or hands then you should visit your doctor. While repetitive strain injury is not life threatening it can affect you more than you think. Over time without visiting a medical professional the symptoms can become progressively worse, or you may even find the condition could be something more dangerous.