Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Reaching Pandemic Proportions

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and other Repetitive Strain
Injuries (RSI’s) like trigger finger, tendonitis, guyon’s
syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome, dupuytren’s contracture,
epicondylitis, dequervain’s and many other disorders effecting
the upper extremity have increased to pandemic proportions over
the past 5 years
Government organizations have attempted to prove that the
incident rate of CTS and RSI’s has decreased during the past
5-10 years, but when looking at the statistics and breaking them
down, it shows that the number of those injured has not
decreased at all, but instead, they are being re-categorized,
and/or they are being moved and added to sub-categories
One such example of workplace injury re-categorization shows
that government organizations break down and list those
employee’s that are injured into a “lost -work days” category
and a “light duty restriction” category The data reveals that
while employee “lost work days” has decreased 50%, the “light
duty restriction” category has risen MORE than 50%
This shows that companies are no longer allowing people to be
off of work permanently while suffering from injury, but instead
are keeping them on payroll, and having them perform a task that
does not exacerbate their current condition In reality, the
number of injuries has not decreased at all, but instead, those
that are injured are just being re-categorized so that the
statistics look as if occupational / work related injuries are
decreasing This method of (dishonest) record keeping keeps
companies from being investigated due to a high level of work
related injuries and in turn also and keeps their insurance
premiums from increasing
If anything, carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain
injuries are on the rise and costing the US billions of
dollars annually Surgeons keep performing surgery with a
terrible success rate of 60% or less, physicians keep
prescribing anti-inflammatory medications with a success rate of
less than 30% while individuals continue to suffer with limited
options made available by the medical industry See Statistics
Below:
Carpal Tunnel Surgery: Average is a 57% failure rate following
patients from 1-day to 6-years At least one of the following
symptoms re-occurred during this time: Pain, Numbness, Tingling
sensations Source: Nancollas, et al, 1995 J Hand Surgery
Wrist Splints and Anti-Inflammatories: Failure rate (Including
“partial success” as failure) is 826% in total alleviation of
symptoms Curative rate following treatment is 184% Source:
Kaplan, et al, 1990 J Hand Surgery
Iontophoresis + Splinting: Failure rate is 421% in total
alleviation from symptoms Source: Banta, et al, 1994 J Hand
Surgery
Steroid Injection: Failure rate (Including “partial success” as
failure) is 726% after 1-year follow up Source: Irwin, et al
J Hand Surgery
Why, if the success rates of these treatments are so low, are
they still being used to treat repetitive strain injuries? The
reason is moneya lot of money Surgeons, general
practitioners and many others in the healthcare industry make
hundreds of millions off those that are injured with RSI’s
Often, their thinking is this: “why prescribe a $100 treatment
that eliminates the individual’s condition when I can make
$4,000 for a 20-minute surgery?”
But there is an alternative to expensive surgery and other
methods of invasive treatment, and that treatment is
conservative therapy utilizing stretches and exercises
Investigate alternative conservative treatments utilizing these
practices and you will obtain relief you’ve been looking for!

Tags | contracture, extremity, government, incident, inflammatory, injuries, insurance, pandemic, premiums, proportions, rate, repetitive, result, syndrome, workplace