Repetitive strain injuries in typists from the data processing Centro de Processamento de Dados do Banestado, bank in Londrina, Paraná, Brasil

Abstract

Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) is a syndrome of difficult diagnosis characterized as muscle-tendinous disease of the upper limbs, such as shoulders and neck, caused by overload of a particular set of muscles, due to its repetitive use or contracted posture sustance, resulting in pain, tiredness and decrease of fatigue professional development. The term RSI, utilized in Brazil, is not used anymore, have been prefered, actually, the denomination Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WRMD). The difficult of WRMD treatment explains the researches on the main susceptible factors and how to prevent them. Fourty typists' complaints and place of work from the Centro de Processamento de Dados of Banestado Bank in Londrina, Paraná, Brasil were analysed. Trought questinaries and occupational factors observation connected to the appearance of WRMD, it was shown that the majority mentioned pain on the shoulder, elbows and hands; 44% subjects who were interviwed had already looked for medical help due yo problems such as tenosynovitis, bursitis and tendinitis, and from those ones, 78% were dismissed from their job. The results obtained from our researches suggest that the kind of physical moviments made to perform the occupational daily tasks, lack of some basic adaptation factors and orientation concerning its prevention, help the appearance of WRMD.