Health and Wellness

Study Refutes Link Between Computer Use and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

A Mayo Clinic study has found that heavy computer use, even up to 7 hours per day, did not increase a person’s risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).

Only 10.5 percent of the 257 study participants, all of whom used computers extensively, met clinical criteria for CTS, which is a compression of the median nerve at the wrist, which leads to numbness, tingling and pain in the hand. Researchers said they had expected to find a much higher incidence of CTS among the computer users. They were also surprised to find that among the participants who developed CTS, two-thirds of them had only very mild cases of the disorder,

According to the study, being female and middle-aged are the major risk factors for developing CTS. Other causes includes wrist trauma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy. A number of labor-intensive blue- and white-collar jobs have also been linked to CTS incidence.

The researchers noted that heavy computer use has been linked to a variety of aches and pains in the neck, shoulder, arm and wrist, but as this study demonstrated, they should not be categorized as full-fledged clinical cases of carpal tunnel syndrome.

The results were published in the June 12 issue of the professional journal Neurology.