Common Methods of Treating Repetitive
Strain Injuries
Surgery:
The average failure rate
is 57% after following the patient from 1-day to 6-years.
At least one of the following symptoms re-occurred during
this time; pain, numbness, and tingling sensations.
After 6-years, the onset of at least one of these symptoms can be
greater than 90%. Most of these individuals will have surgery more
than once, and patients have been known to have as many as 5-8 surgeries
on just one hand!
Wrist
Splints and Anti-Inflammmatory Medication:
This approach to treating
carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain injuries has
a very poor success rate. The FAILURE RATE for total alleviation
of all symptoms is about 82.6%.
Steroid
Injection:
The FAILURE RATE
for total alleviation after a one-year follow-up is about
75.6% of all patients.
FLEXTEND® & FLEXTEND® -AC:
These training systems have more than a 90% success rate.
See: RSI Info
NATIONAL
STATICS FOR CUMULATIVE TRAUMA DISORDERS (CTD's):
-
Data from the National Center for
Health Statistics indicates that 849,000 new problem
visits were made to physicians in office-based practice
in 1994 because of carpal tunnel syndrome.
-
Of these visits, 166,000 (27.8 percent)
were made to orthopedic surgeons.
-
Where a referral was made for carpal
tunnel syndrome, almost half (48 percent) were made
to orthopedic surgeons.
-
Approximately 260,000 carpal tunnel
release operations are performed each year and 47 percent
of these are considered to be work-related.
-
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
indicates that in 1994, carpal tunnel syndrome accounted
for 1.7 percent of workplace-related conditions in
private industry that resulted in work loss. Carpal
tunnel syndrome cases were concentrated in manufacturing
(46 percent), services (16.7 percent) and retail trade
(12.8 percent).
-
While accounting for only 1.7 percent
of workplace-related conditions, carpal tunnel syndrome
results in the highest median number of days of work
loss (30 days) among all major work-related injury
or illness categories4. Almost half of carpal tunnel
syndrome-cases (47.5 percent) result in 31 days or
more of work loss.
-
The median days away from work
for all workplace-related conditions is 6 days. Amputations
were the second highest category at 25 days. Fractures
were third at 20 days.
