WRIST-WATCH NEURITIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1922, Page 9

WRIST-WATCH NEURITIS.

TWO CASES QUOTED. TIGHT COLLAR DANGER. London, June 2. Dr. J. S. B. Stopford, professor of anatomy at Manchester University, records in the Lancet, two cases of neuritis in the hand caused by wearing tight wrist-watches. The first patient • had a tingling pain along the inner bor- i der of *the hand and in the little finger, the persistence of which was causing him anxiety. A tender point was then discovered at the apex of the bony prominence on the internal surface of the wrist, pressure upon which caused pain to radiate into the dorsal cutaneous branch of the ulnar nerve. There was some small loss of sensation, but no paralysis or wasting of any of the muscles of the hand. This localised neuritis was traced to the wearing of a tight wristlet and watch, the former producing compression of a branch of the ulnar nerve as it curved round the lower extremity of the bcue. The pain disappeared when the wristlet was left off.. The second patient complained of -a tingling pain on the ‘inner side of the hand, which accompanied movements of

the wrist. The localised point of tenderness was the same as that found in the first patient, and the sensory disturbances corresponded again to the distribution of the dorsal cutaneous branch of the ulnar nerve. This patient had also worn a tight wristlet, and the symptoms disappeared when it was d‘scarded. The two cases were alm -C identical, and each being confirmat r v of the ether, the cause of the neur: is cannot be in dispute. Dr. Haydn Brown, a xvell-known nerve specialist, does not think that the avpr- | age sensible person, would surely strap a wrist watch on so tightly as to can-?' I neuritis. If they did do so, naturally ! the results would be unpleasant. “But thousrh I lausrh at the wrist-watch dan- 1 , ger.’’ he added, “in the same breath. T will say that all over England there are : people who. though they may not know ! it. arp ■-nfferin'r from the effects of ; tight collars. When soft collars came I in men were tempted to tie their ties ; into tight sailor knots, to make them ; look neater. These sailor knots are inof torture in hundreds of cases. Them is not a hundredth part of the risk and danger from tight wristwatches that there is from tight neckwear.”