Disc Jockey Tenosynovitis
A healthy 25-year-old, left-hand dominant woman presented to clinic experiencing progressively worsening pain for 2 weeks in her right thumb. The pain was intense on waking and increased when grasping objects or shaking hands. She denied trauma and said she had not previously experienced thumb pain while working as a beautician for the past 3 years. The patient reported that 1 month earlier she began playing the video game “DJ Hero” during most nights of the week for several hours at a time…
In the video game “DJ Hero,” players use a simulated turntable to repetitively and quickly move their right wrist back and forth (radial and ulnar deviation) while pushing 3 colored buttons with the right hand to match the beat of the music identified by colored icons on the screen. The motion is designed to simulate the “scratching” of a vinyl record on a turntable that some disc jockeys have performed over the past few decades.
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— Allan L. Suttle, MD, Erik A. Wallace, MD
This article originally appeared in the April 2011 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
