Carpal Tunnel Risk Low
in Computer Users

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Office workers stuck in front of a computer all day may be able to pound away on their computer keyboards without fear of carpal tunnel syndrome, according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic, in Scottsdale, Arizona. ``We had expected to find a much higher incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome in the heavy computer users in our study because it is a commonly held belief that computer use causes carpal tunnel syndrome,'' said lead author Dr. J. Clarke Stevens in a statement from the Mayo Clinic.

``The other finding was that among our cases of carpal tunnel syndrome, two thirds of them had very mild carpal tunnel syndrome,'' he added.

Marked by numbness and tingling in the hand and wrist and pain that can extend up to the shoulder, carpal tunnel syndrome may be caused by work or hobbies that involve repetitive motions of the upper limbs. Swelling in the wrist compresses nerves that travel from the forearm to the hand through a ''tunnel'' in the wrist. Treatment includes painkillers, braces, steroid injections into the joint and surgery to ``release'' the ligament that runs through the tunnel and puts pressure on nerves.

In the study, the researchers reviewed questionnaires that aimed to evaluate computer usage and symptoms associated with carpal tunnel syndrome in 257 employees of the Mayo Clinic. Participants also received a nerve exam to establish whether or not they suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome. The complete findings are published in the June 12th issue of the journal Neurology.

``There were about 30% of our employees surveyed who had tingling of various sorts in the hand but only 10.5% of them turned out to have carpal tunnel syndrome,'' said Stevens in a prepared statement.

``(Those without carpal tunnel syndrome) had tingling from involvement of other nerves and a variety of symptoms that are likely not clinically significant,'' he added.

``Although this study is unlikely to be the final word on the possible relationship between computer usage and carpal tunnel syndrome, the absence of relationship is one possible explanation for the lack of proven benefits for primary prevention of carpal tunnel syndrome by ergonomically designed keyboards and supports,'' Dr. Richard K.Olney, of the University of California, in San Francisco, writes in an accompanying editorial.

SOURCE: Neurology 2001:56;1491-1492,1568-1570.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".