"Texting" Tendinitis
Mobile phone manufacturers should warn of the risk of overuse injury as part of product labelling, according to a letter by Adelaide GP Dr Robert Menz in the current issue of the Medical Journal of Australia.
The call came after a 13-year-old girl presented with acutely tender swelling in her right forearm, later diagnosed as "texting" tendinitis.
The condition resulted from excessive sending of text messages on the patient's newly acquired mobile phone.
The patient had been given the phone in December and the associated plan allowed $100 credit that had to be used between 5 January and 4 February.
"This equates to nearly 300 SMS messages, or 10 a day, if all available credit were used for sending text messages", Dr Menz said.
The phone and plan also allowed for up to 760 characters per message, instead of the usual 160.
The patient had been using only her right thumb to press the keypad, and was using "traditional" rather than "predictive" text.
The condition settled rapidly with explanation and reassurance, rest, application of naproxen gel twice daily for two days, and use of both hands to operate the keypad.
"To my knowledge, this is the first report of this condition in Australia, although other unusual overuse injuries of the hand have been described with Nintendo playing", Dr Menz said.
CONTACT Dr Robert MENZ 0419 166 537 / 08 8274 9324
Judith TOKLEY, AMA Public Affairs, 0408 824 306 / 02 6270 5471