Title: Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTD's)

Primary Message

Cumulative trauma disorders or CTD’s are a group of disorders specific to the musculo-skeletal system; bones, joints, tendons, and muscles. The mechanism of injury is more insidious than a simple back strain following heavy lifting. Rather, these injuries result from repeated stress on specific structures over a prolonged period of time. As the work force ages, these disorders will become more prevalent, increasing medical costs and lost productivity.

Key Points

• CTD’s are also called repetitive motion injury or overuse syndrome. These account for almost 60% of all recordable work-related injuries.

• By understanding the risk factors and recognizing the early signs of fatigue, workers can minimize the effects of cumulative trauma.

• Design work procedures to allow joints to remain as close to their neutral positions to maximize muscle strength.

• Introduce frequent rest break and/or rest elements during sustained, repetitive work tasks.

• Provide engineering controls to hold parts during assembly minimizing awkward positioning and static loading.

• Job design and safe work practices are key components in an overall injury prevention strategy.

Key Advice

The traditional approaches to overtime, piece work and adherence to rigid job descriptions need to be replaced by more flexible strategies if employers are to remain productive on a competitive basis. Employers must prioritize those areas where absenteeism or the incidence of injury has been historically high and reorganize the work to minimize CTD risk factors.

Employee Materials Included