|
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. For shoulder disorders, visit http://www.flextend-ac.com
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. So, 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, CTS and RSI's are on
the rise and costing the U.S. 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 82.6% in total alleviation of symptoms. Curative
rate following treatment is 18.4%. Source: Kaplan,
et al, 1990. J Hand Surgery.
Iontophoresis + Splinting: Failure
rate is 42.1% in total alleviation from symptoms. Source:
Banta, et al, 1994. J Hand Surgery.
Steroid Injection: Failure
rate ( Including "partial success" as failure)
is 72.6% 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
money..a 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 FLEXTEND, a device that quickly
and easily corrects muscle imbalances affecting the
upper extremity, from fingertip to shoulder. For
less than $100, an individual can quickly recover
from existing muscle imbalances or prevent them from
occurring in the first place.
AUTHOR: Mr.
Anliker is a Therapist and Inventor of Therapeutic
Exercise Products that are utilized by Corporations,
Consumers and Medical Facilities around the world
for the prevention and rehabilitation of repetitive
strain injuries
|
