OBJECTIVES: To assess occupational associations with tenosynovitis and epicondylitis, we conducted a systematic literature review. We focused particularly on evidence that might support compensation of these disorders 'on the balance of probabilities'. METHODS: We searched the MEDLINE and EMBASE electronic biomedical databases to 1 January 2005 using combinations of keyword and medical subject headings, and also the references cited in two state-of-the-art reviews from the 1990s. Primary research reports were retrieved and checked for further relevant citations. From each paper, we abstracted a standardized set of information on study populations, exposure contrasts and estimates of effect. RESULTS: We found and summarized 18 papers. In the main, these based analysis on job titles rather than on directly assessed physical activities. Few occupations were studied more than once, however, and there was little consistent evidence of jobs or work activities that carried more than a doubling of risk for either disorder. CONCLUSION: Compensation of occupational illness can be problematic for disorders that are not specific to work and for which there are no distinctive clinical features in occupationally related cases. Attribution can, however, be made on the balance of probabilities if there is convincing evidence that risk is at least doubled in an occupational group. Our review highlights the relative lack of data to support such attribution for tenosynovitis and epicondylitis, and discusses the difficulty of compensating upper limb disorders.
OBJECTIVES: To assess occupational associations with tenosynovitis and epicondylitis, we conducted a systematic literature review. We focused particularly on evidence that might support compensation of these disorders 'on the balance of probabilities'. METHODS: We searched the MEDLINE and EMBASE electronic biomedical databases to 1 January 2005 using combinations of keyword and medical subject headings, and also the references cited in two state-of-the-art reviews from the 1990s. Primary research reports were retrieved and checked for further relevant citations. From each paper, we abstracted a standardized set of information on study populations, exposure contrasts and estimates of effect. RESULTS: We found and summarized 18 papers. In the main, these based analysis on job titles rather than on directly assessed physical activities. Few occupations were studied more than once, however, and there was little consistent evidence of jobs or work activities that carried more than a doubling of risk for either disorder. CONCLUSION: Compensation of occupational illness can be problematic for disorders that are not specific to work and for which there are no distinctive clinical features in occupationally related cases. Attribution can, however, be made on the balance of probabilities if there is convincing evidence that risk is at least doubled in an occupational group. Our review highlights the relative lack of data to support such attribution for tenosynovitis and epicondylitis, and discusses the difficulty of compensating upper limb disorders.
Authors: Alexis Descatha; Ann Marie Dale; Lisa Jaegers; Eléonore Herquelot; Bradley Evanoff Journal: Occup Environ Med Date: 2013-07-03 Impact factor: 4.402
Authors: David Coggon; Georgia Ntani; Keith T Palmer; Vanda E Felli; Raul Harari; Lope H Barrero; Sarah A Felknor; David Gimeno; Anna Cattrell; Consol Serra; Matteo Bonzini; Eleni Solidaki; Eda Merisalu; Rima R Habib; Farideh Sadeghian; Masood Kadir; Sudath S P Warnakulasuriya; Ko Matsudaira; Busisiwe Nyantumbu; Malcolm R Sim; Helen Harcombe; Ken Cox; Maria H Marziale; Leila M Sarquis; Florencia Harari; Rocio Freire; Natalia Harari; Magda V Monroy; Leonardo A Quintana; Marianela Rojas; Eduardo J Salazar Vega; E Clare Harris; Sergio Vargas-Prada; J Miguel Martinez; George Delclos; Fernando G Benavides; Michele Carugno; Marco M Ferrario; Angela C Pesatori; Leda Chatzi; Panos Bitsios; Manolis Kogevinas; Kristel Oha; Tuuli Sirk; Ali Sadeghian; Roshini J Peiris-John; Nalini Sathiakumar; A Rajitha Wickremasinghe; Noriko Yoshimura; Danuta Kielkowski; Helen L Kelsall; Victor C W Hoe; Donna M Urquhart; Sarah Derrett; Sarah Derett; David McBride; Andrew Gray Journal: PLoS One Date: 2012-07-06 Impact factor: 3.240