50,503 research outputs found

    Cumulative Trauma Disorders – "The Disease of the 90's": An Interdisciplinary Analysis

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    Cumulative trauma disorders (also called repetitive stress injuries orrepetitive motion injuries) involve injuries to tendons, tendon sheaths, musclesand nerves of the hands, wrists, elbows, arms, shoulders, legs or back that arecaused or aggravated by repetitive motion of the involved limb. This article willrefer to such injuries as cumulative trauma disorders and will use the abbreviation"CTDs." This article will investigate the nature of the medical conditionsincorporated within the classification of CTDs, the legislative and jurisprudentialresponse to these injuries within the workers' compensation law of Louisiana andthe statistical picture of these claims in the workers' compensation system

    Bush Administration Ergonomics Plan Fails to Protect Workers From Crippling Injuries

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    [Excerpt] On March 20, 2001, President Bush--in his first major legislative action--signed legislation repealing OSHA’s ergonomics standard. This important worker safeguard, issued in November 2000, was ten years in the making and would have prevented hundreds of thousands of workplace injuries a year. But, bowing to Big Business groups who opposed any ergonomics regulation, after the 2000 election, the Republican controlled Congress and the Bush Administration joined together to kill this worker protection measure. Last March, as Congress contemplated the repeal of OSHA’s ergonomics standard, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao stated, “Repetitive stress injuries in the workplace are an important problem.” She promised that if the standard was repealed, the Department would “pursue a comprehensive approach to ergonomics, which may include new rulemaking…This approach will provide employers with achievable measures that protect employees before injuries occur.

    Self-selected Foot Strike Patterns in Runners when Transitioning from the Shod to Barefoot Condition: A Systematic Review of the Literature

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    Purpose and Background: Recent research has begun to focus on foot strike patterns as they relate to injuries in runners. Runners who employ a rear-foot strike (RFS) pattern (in which the heel lands before the ball of the foot) are more likely to experience repetitive stress injuries such as tibial stress fractures, patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), and plantar fasciitis. Conversely, runners demonstrating a forefoot strike (FFS) pattern (defined as the ball of the foot-usually the 4th and 5th metatarsal heads-landing before the heel) are more susceptible to Achilles tendon, plantarflexor, and metatarsal injuries. Several systematic studies have concluded that barefoot runners employed a FFS pattern while shod runners used a RFS pattern. The purpose of this systematic review was to determine the effects of transitioning from traditionally shod running to barefoot running on self-selected initial contact patterns in long distance runners.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/dptcapstones/1010/thumbnail.jp

    Dangers of Youth Sport Specialization

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    Year-round training in a single sport is increasingly common among youth athletes. Contributing factors may include external pressures, early recruiting, pursuit of scholarships, and private leagues.Risks may include: overuse injuries, muscle imbalances, degenerative disorders, acute traumatic injuries, and psychological pathologies.This review examined evidence of injury risks associated with early specialization. Evidence from this review can aid educational efforts for athletes, parents, and coaches. Peer-reviewed literature was obtained using the search terms youth sport specialization, injury risks, and psychological effects in SportDiscus, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar, resulting in ­­­­­40 articles reviewed for common themes. Research suggests specializing in one sport during youth development increases risk of short- and long-term injury. Acute injuries may include muscle strains and ligament sprains. Overuse injuries may include apophyseal injuries, osteochondrosis, epiphyseal injuries, muscle imbalance, and ligament or tendon trauma. Research suggests athletes may develop psychological challenges, growth impairments, and physiological imbalances due to early specialization. Athletes, parents, and coaches can benefit from increased education on the adverse effects of early specialization. An increase in overall fitness, coordination, muscle conditioning, healthy bone growth, and psychological health may be achieved by cross training and adequate rest seasons. This may decrease injury predispositions in youth

    ACCOMMODATING STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTING CHRONIC LOWER EXTREMITY INJURIES

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    Trauma or tissue damage is simply the result of applying too much stress to a tissue via an external load either directly or indirectly. The application of force to the system results in stress that can cause tissue damage, i.e., injury. The problem can be viewed from two perspectives as stated by Nahum and Melvin in the preface of their book Accidental Injury,Biomechanics and Prevention (1993). One perspective is that of the professionals involved in injury diagnosis and treatment while the other is that of engineers and scientists (especially biomechanists) interested in the mechanics of injury. Both perspectives are well documented/represented in the professional and scientific literature. Tissue damage/injury results when a tissue is stressed beyond some critical value/tolerance level. The stress is a result of the magnitude of the force, the type or direction of the force and the time interval between repetitive loading. Tissue damage can be acute (a single traumatic event) or chronic (developing/progressing over time). Most lower extremity injuries resulting from running and landing activities are chronic, resulting from repetitive loading to underdeveloped and/or unprepared structures. Chronic injuries can be avoided or minimized by adhering to a number of simple principles that are discussed in this paper

    Simulated Effects of Marathon Training on Bone Density, Remodeling, and Microdamage Accumulation of the Femur

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    Stress fractures are mechanically induced injuries resulting from fatigue damage to bone due to repetitive loading and are common injuries occurring in runners. In this study, we used computer simulations of marathon training programs to examine the effects of endurance running on femoral density, remodeling, and microdamage accumulation. Simulated remodeling activity increased in the femoral neck and proximal cortex and predicted microdamage increased in all regions examined after 16 weeks for each program. Daily running for three years produced more microdamage than the advanced training schedule over the same time period. Areas of high remodeling and damage corresponded to clinically observed locations of femoral stress fractures, indicating that the simulation may be useful in designing training programs to reduce fracture risk

    Identifying the Ergonomic Risk Factors of a Job

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    [Excerpt] When we experience overexertion of muscles and joints, common symptoms include soreness, pain, discomfort, redness and swelling, limited range of motion, stiffness in joints, weakness and clumsiness, numbing/ tingling sensations (“pins and needles”), popping and cracking noises in the joints, and “burning” sensations in muscles. We need to pay attention to these warnings and act quickly to prevent trauma from becoming more serious. For repetitive jobs, over time, cumulative trauma injuries can develop. At first, our symptoms of pain and/or weakness are felt during work and disappear during off-hours or rest. Usually the body recovers and the problem is completely reversible at this stage. But, if the workplace conditions of the task are not changed, the injury can progress to the point that our symptoms no longer disappear completely between work shifts. This means that our bodies are unable to completely repair the affected tissues during rest. We may find that our symptoms are beginning to interfere with our ability to perform our usual work activities. We might find that we are moving more slowly, taking care how we bend or reach, conserving our movements just to get through the day. But, if the work conditions are still not changed and the trauma is allowed to continue, we may find that the pain persists even at rest, even to the point that we have trouble sleeping. At this stage, severe pain, limited mobility, loss of sensation or muscle weakness can make it impossible to perform most tasks. We find both our work and our home life affected – brushing teeth, combing hair, picking up objects, getting up and down on the toilet – everyday life is impacted

    The Learning Curve

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    Presents findings from a five-year study of youth baseball pitchers' pitching methods, techniques, presence of pain, and injury occurrence. Examines links between increased competition, overuse, and other factors and the risk of injury

    Computer aided design for work injury elimination in production assembly systems

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    Work injury is one of the major obstacles in manufacturing industries especially in production assembly systems all over the world. Work injuries reduce production efficiency and threat human health. Among various types of work injuries, repetitive work injuries are the one that can be easily neglected. This thesis is about the application of computing technology to analysis and synthesis of repetitive work injuries in production assembly systems for the purpose of reduction or elimination of these injuries. A production assembly system consists of the assembly machines, products, tools, humans (workers), and particular environments. Injuries of the worker are basically caused by over stress, strain, and fatigue, which are further related to the worker’s posture. This research proposed a general methodology for constructing a software system for analysis and simulation of a worker’s postures in a virtual environment. The implementation of such a computer system was discussed. This research also proposed methods to compute work injury cost. Finally, this research proposed a more systematic method for the synthesis or re-design of worker’ postures to reduce or eliminate work injuries. The major contribution of this thesis work is to advance computing to work injury analysis and synthesis in production systems. This thesis study concludes that the computer technology is matured enough to highly automate the process of work injury analysis and synthesis. It is possible that a complete design of production systems with consideration of work injuries can be done in a much more efficient manner – perhaps reduction of the ramp-up process in the automobile industry from 6 months (typically) to one month in addition to the removal of wasted materials and potential injuries in the ramp-up process
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