Overuse Syndromes

Overuse syndromes (repetitive strain): RSI, OOS, carpal tunnel syndrome, iliotibial band inflammation, trochanteric bursitis.

Sometimes we injure ourselves due to a cumulative strain rather than a specific incident.  In the situation where this happens at work we call it Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) or Occupational Overuse Syndrome (OOS).  These types of injuries can also happen outside of work due to a repetitive movement or action, running for example, and this can result in any number of pathologies.

Runners knee is a group of problems that occur around the knee. As the name suggests ‘Runners knee’ commonly occurs in the running population and describes a number of different pathologies including patellofemoral syndrome, ITB friction syndrome, chondromalacia patellae and anterior knee pain syndrome.  There is no specific incident here, it is simply an accumulation of mechanical stress eventually causing a breakdown in the tissue.

How we fix Overuse Syndromes

Management of any repetitive strain type problem needs to address underlying causation, i.e. poor work ergonomics in the case of RSI, biomechanical issues in the case of runners.  In addition to reviewing these underlying causes, manual therapy treatment (i.e. what we do in clinic) can help to reduce the severity and longevity of the associated symptoms.  It can be necessary in these cases to refer to your GP for a review on potential pharmaceutical intervention (most commonly anti-inflammatory medication), particularly if the symptomatic tissue is very inflamed.  In some cases, we may refer you for a cortisone injection to reduce inflammation in the symptomatic tissue.
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