Injuries
Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), a personal illness categorized under cumulative trauma disorder or repetitive motion trauma, is the fastest growing occupational illness in Australia. Activity centers inside the wrist in the carpal tunnel, a collection of 8-10 tendons surrounding the median nerve. The tendons slide easily encased in the synovial sheath, however when subjected to repeated, limited range motions such as typing, the sheath can swell and fill with fluids, adding pressure on the median nerve and sending pain into the fingers. Symptoms of CTS are the burning, prickling, and tingling within the wrist or first three fingers and thumb. The highest prevalence of self-reported CTS is in the mail service, health care, construction, assembly line, and fabrication industries. In the past, CTS has been limited to the manual labor industry, but a trend is rising in the computer industry as well. Australian workers who use keyboards daily in work involving extensive data entry and word processing make up the largest amount of the working population.