Effective treatment for repetitive stress injuries (such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, hand pain, wrist pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and elbow pain) can be elusive.  Treatment for repetitive stress is challenging when your patient goes to work five days a week and performs the very tasks that caused the injury.  Any effective treatment for a repetitve stress injury must include prevention.  Prevention with regard to work place injuries and computer related injuries in specific always begins with ergonomics.

My personal experience with repetitive stress injuries began back in the middle part of the 1990’s when my practice started undergoing an unexpected  transformation.  I started seeing a growing number of people who were complaining of upper extremity pain that was obviously related to long hours of computer work. 

While I had studied carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive stress injuries in school and had seen these patients in the past, the overwhelming numbers of these new patients that were presenting to my office made further study about these injuries a must.    

Standard treatment for most types of repetitive stress injuries of the upper extremity involve some combination of wrist splints, elbow straps, massage, joint manipulations, ultrasound therapy, electrical muscle stimulation, trigger point therapy, stretching and icing.  Treatment for more advanced or debilitating cases could include cortisone injections and various types of nerve decompression surgeries. 

These treatments only work some of the time.  Most of the time treatment only provides temporary relief for short periods.  Many of those who would obtain relief from treatment would see their symptoms return once they went back to work.    

For many of those patients who suffered with repetitive stress injuries, the end result of treatment was some level of disability followed by the loss of their employment. 

Carpal tunnel surgery is questionable, statistics that show that approximately 95% of all carpal tunnel surgeries are reauthorized one year after the initial surgery date.  How hopeless does that sound?

Most cases of repetitive stress involve ergonomic issues that can be easily fixed.  Simple things like having the computer monitor off to one side instead of placed in front of the patient, using the key board at the wrong height, and having a chair without armrests can easily be fixed.  The most common source of irritation that I became aware of, however, was the neck pain, shoulder pain, elbow pain and wrist pain associated with using the mouse.

Something had to be done to relieve the stress of computer mouse use in order to help patient with repetitive stress injuries.  The solution to reducing stress from mouse use was to reposition the mouse pad from your desk top to the armrest of your chair.

After evolving through several prototypes, the Ergo Nav became a mouse pad that attached to the armrest of the chair with a smaller platform that dosn’t intrude on your workspace and a mouse pad platform that would not only laterally shift side to side, tilt side to side and tilt forward, but it would also tilt down and out of the way when having a mouse pad at the end of your armrest was not convenient.  

These features make the Ergo Nav a valuable component of an ergonomically friendly work environment. 

When combined with a keyboard tray and a supportive chair with armrests that adjust up and down, the Ergo Nav allows for a very comfortable computer posture.