Information for health professionals
Background
The causes of upper limb disorders (ULDs) are not clear, but key risk factors are task repetitiveness and the level of applied forces. Other risk factors include awkward or constrained postures, psychological and organisational factors, task invariability and individual susceptibility.
Symptoms are initially short lived and may settle with rest overnight, but can become long term in spite of rest. Although the symptoms often are localised with pain, aching, burning, redness and swelling, they can become widespread and this can be misleading when assessment and examination are used to establish the diagnosis. Few of the diagnostic signs are consistent; hence, a comprehensive assessment is recommended
List of well-recognised disorders
- Tenosynovitis (hand/forearm)
- Tendonitis (fingers/hand/forearm)
- Rotator cuff tendonitis (including supraspinatus)
- Bicipital tendonitis
- De Quervain's
- Carpal Tunnel syndrome
- Shoulder capsulitis
- Epicondylitis
- Cervical spondylosis
- Diffuse/non specific ULD
- Tension neck
/ Arabic
/ Bengali
/ Chinese
/ Farsi
/ Gujarati
/ Hindi
/ Kurdish
/ Pashto
/ Punjabi
/ Tamil
/ Urdu