Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Unrelated to Typing?

hug_the_penguin writes "Betanews is reporting about a Harvard medical school report that suggests Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is unrelated to typing at all. Suggested causes may be genetic disposition, body weight, fractured bones or even pregnancy." From the article: "Now, don't go out typing to your heart's content. Researchers still warned that improper computer use could cause different types of repetitive stress injuries, of which carpal tunnel is incorrectly described as one."

Hmm...

[MaestroSartori]

I'd always been told it was pressure on the carpal tunnel that caused it, not finger movements. So typing with your wrists pressed against the corner of a desk (or in the case more familiar to me, playing bass guitar with the right wrist pressed against the top edge of the instrument) would cause it, not typing with a nice wrist rest or with hands held high, piano-style, above the desk...

This is news?

[Zathrus]

What's new here? Everything that the betanews report states has long been known in the medical community -- particularly the bit about pregnancy. My wife is currently in her second pregnancy, and she never had any carpal tunnel problems before. But she does now -- if she's at a keyboard too long or crochets too much then her wrist starts to hurt. Her doctor says it's fairly common for pregnant women to suffer carpal tunnel due to increased swelling and the loosening of joints during pregnancy. And all she can do is wear a wrist brace and take tylenol -- there are no anti-inflamatories approved for use while pregnant.

The rest of the info is also well known. A poor hand posture can exacerbate the problem, but it's unlikely to cause it outright.

Re:Hmm...

[MadAhab]

I've always found this to be true. Anyone wonder why pre-electronic typists don't seem to have reported RSI? Because they needed more force to strike the keys, and held their hands above the keyboard. No question, the continuous pressure on the underside of the wrist is the culprit.

And the mouse is the worst, because I always end up resting my wrist on the table.

Hand surgeons...

[CupBeEmpty]

So I deal with hand surgeons on a very regular basis (and these are top of the line international teaching surgeons to boot) and the concencus I get from them is that the act of typing itself is not necessarily what is causing the inflammation on the nerve. For example:

• Take your hands and hold them out in front of you with your elbows touching your ribcage and forearms extended directly out, parallel to the floor, palms down and also parallel to the floor.
• Now move your your hands together so your thumbs touch.
• Now move your hands (thumbs still touching) toward your chest.

If you did all of that correctly you would see how the angle of your wrists becomes and less natural. Now imagine typing with your standard (or worse.. laptop) keyoard close to your chest. The unnatural angle does not bode well for your wrist.

Basically 75% (rough number) of people that come into these docs complaining of chronic wrist pain don't even need splints. They are advised to get a trackball (much easier on the wrists), type with the keyboard farther away, and have the top of the monitor at eye level, and sometimes to get an ergonomic keyboard. Most people report that their symptoms are gone within 2-4 weeks if they keep up their new setup. I know a lot of /.'ers are pretty down on things like ergonomic keyboards and consider them little more than overpriced gimmicks but the truth is they are a far cry less expensive than carpal tunnel surgery and relatively effective.

As a microbiologist I can also tell you that pretty much any disease/disorder/etc. is influenced by things like genetics, age, weight, hormone levels, etc. etc. Saying that carpal tunnel isn't affected by poor body angle and repetetive motions (like typing) is like saying that skin cancer isn't caused by bathing yourself in UV radiation all day and that it is only attributable to genetics, and body type. The other problem with this report (which we also have not seen yet) is that it is a correlation study in the negative. They are saying that they cannot find a correlation so therefore it must not exist. That is even worse that the positive correlation studies where two trends coincide so they conclude causation. My view is that typing does aggravate carpal tunnel but so does genetics that make you susceptible to inflammation.

I had some problems, too..

[catdevnull]

I was concerned that my computer job was giving me the pain I was having in my hands and unable to even hold silverware, etc. It turned out to be the pressure on my carpal tunnel area from my bicycle handles.

I started walking to work instead and the problem went away. I was surprised after all of the attention that typing gets for causing carpal tunnel. Glad to hear those Harvard people are figuring it out.