Not all work-related injuries in Virginia or North Carolina result from a single traumatic injury. Many result from overuse of your extremities over time. You may be susceptible to injuries such as these if your job requires you to perform the same motions of one or more of your extremities over and over. These injuries go by many names, including repetitive strain/stress injury, repetitive use injury, repetitive motion injury or overuse injury.
There are many types of repetitive motion injuries, but some occur more often than others. WebMD explains that bursitis and tendonitis are among the most common. Though each affects a different type of tissue, it can be difficult even for a doctor to differentiate between the two because the symptoms can be similar.
Your tendons are strong bands of tissue that connect your muscles to your bones, thus allowing you to move. They are fibrous in nature and white in appearance. A bursa is a fluid-filled sac or pouch that occurs between a tendon and bone to provide cushioning and prevent friction. Repetitive motion can cause either to become irritated and inflamed.
Your body contains over 150 bursae, yet the most common sites for bursitis to occur include the knee and the elbow. Tendonitis most often occurs at the elbow, shoulders and biceps, usually occurs near the bone at the site of insertion.
There are three different types of bursitis; repetitive motion can result in traumatic bursitis. If you are younger than 35, you may be at greater risk of developing bursitis, whereas you may be at greater risk for tendonitis if you are male. Tendonitis can cause warmth and redness of the skin over the inflamed tendon, as well as pain with active motion. Symptoms of bursitis include tenderness, swelling, redness and crepitus, i.e. a “crunchy” feeling with the movement of the joint.
The information in this article is not intended as legal advice but provided for educational purposes only.
