Balance Systems, Inc. was established in 1996 in order to provide high-quality rehabilitation equipment for the treatment of imbalances throughout the body, with emphasis on repetitive stress injuries affecting the upper extremities. The medical community has had little to offer in the development of rehabilitation equipment for musculoskeletal disorders, therefore, BSI has taken the initiative to create products to address these types of injuries.

Carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive stress injures have dramatically increased in the workplace over the last few years, thus creating a need for products that could provide pain relief to the growing number of people afflicted with their disabling symptoms. Many companies manufacture products that are intended for the use in decreasing the symptoms of repetitive stress injuries, but actually provided little or no pain relief.

Due to the failure of these rehabilitation products to provide long term relief from carpal tunnel syndrome, surgery has become the final solution for many. One of the reasons that minimal progress has been made in preventing and treating repetitive stress injuries is because the products that have been designed address the problem incorrectly. Nearly all of the products that have been developed to treat overuse injuries consist of squeezing/gripping devices, or splints, none of which has solved this widespread dilemma. The medical industries' incorrect approach in treating patients with carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive stress injuries, has resulted in an ever-increasing number of people afflicted with their painful symptoms.

The years of carpal tunnel research that Balance Systems' professional team of physicians and therapists conducted, lead them to believe that the chronic overuse of the flexor muscles which 'close' the hand causes these muscles to become stronger, tighter, and shorter than the extensor muscles that 'open' the hand. Because the weaker extensor muscles cannot provide sufficient support to the wrist joint, the carpal bones shift downward and into the carpal tunnel. (When the hand is in the pronated, functional position, as it is when everyday activities are being performed, as opposed to the supinated, anatomical position.) At the same time, the stronger flexor muscles pull on the carpal and metacarpal bones within the wrist joint, causing the bones to shift inward and down, resulting in compression of the carpal tunnel from all sides. When this happens, the underlying nerves become impinged, and symptoms occur.

Once the concept that 'muscle imbalance' was the cause of the symptoms associated with carpal tunnel syndrome, testing began in order to formulate a device that would strengthen the weaker, underdeveloped intrinsic and extrinsic extensor muscles of the fingers, wrist and elbow joints simultaneously, without any gripping involved. After years of research and testing, FLEXTEND was developed and submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1994, and two years later was patented, along with several variations of the same product line.

Balance Systems Inc., with the use of FLEXTEND, has experienced tremendous success in fully rehabilitating patients suffering with carpal tunnel syndrome and other various repetitive stress injuries of the fingers, hand, wrist and elbow. The independent clinical data submitted to Balance Systems, establishes FLEXTEND as a necessary tool for the prevention and rehabilitation of these injuries.

Developing high-tech rehabilitation products that provide the user with pain relief by addressing the cause, rather than the symptoms, sets Balance Systems Inc. far ahead of the competition. With so many rehabilitation products on the market that fail to provide long term relief, FLEXTEND, along with other high-quality products produced by Balance Systems, will flourish within the medical community now, and into the future.