What is a Repetitive Stress Injury?
A repetitive stress injury is an injury to muscles, tendons, or nerves in a part of your body due to frequent, repetitive movements.
When you were young, you used to play video games all day long during summer vacation, but now the mere thought of wrapping your hands around a game controller makes your thumbs and wrists cramp up. It is not because you are old and have lost your capacity for fun. It is because you are old and have been putting your thumbs, fingers, wrists, and elbows to work for economically productive purposes, day after day and year after year. The last thing that you want to hear from a doctor is that your symptoms are not due to your years of using a sewing machine, drill, or computer keyboard at work but rather are due to those all-day sessions of playing Super Marios Bros. during summer vacation when you were a teenager. Repetitive stress injury can be a compensable work injury, but it is not as easy to get your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance on board to pay for treatment as it is when you are requesting payment for treatment of injuries sustained in an accidental fall at work, for example. An Omaha workers’ compensation lawyer can help you file a workers’ compensation claim for a repetitive stress injury related to your work.
Repetitive Stress Injuries: Causes, Complications, and Treatment
Repetitive stress injury, also known as repetitive strain injury (RSI), is the wear and tear that occurs to soft tissues such as muscles, nerves, and tendons when you make many repetitions of the same movement of the same body part over time. Therefore, it commonly occurs in workers who perform manual labor such as manufacturing, sewing, or cleaning, as well as in office workers who make thousands of keystrokes per day on a computer. The most affected body parts are the hands, fingers, wrists, and elbows, but the knees can also be affected.
Symptoms of RSI include pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness in the affected body parts. The best way to manage RSI is to rest the affected body part and to observe a healthy posture that causes as little strain as possible on the affected tissues. If untreated, RSI can lead to complications such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis, which require more extensive medical treatment.
Your Rights if You Have a Work-Related Repetitive Stress Injury
If you get a diagnosis of repetitive strain injury, you are entitled to reasonable accommodations to prevent it from getting worse, such as an ergonomic keyboard or work desk. If the RSI resulted from your work, then your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance must pay for any medical treatment you need to manage the condition and prevent it from worsening.
Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO About Repetitive Strain Injuries at Work in Omaha Nebraska
An Omaha workers’ compensation lawyer can help you if you have suffered a repetitive strain injury related to your job. Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO in Omaha, Nebraska about your case.