It may look as though a carpal tunnel problem and a repetitive strain injury (RSI) are exactly the same, when you realize that a carpal tunnel symptom seems to resemble any symptom that stems from an RSI. However, what is going on inside the wrist and hand is quite different in the two cases, and there is no genetic component to an RSI. And yet the carpal tunnel hand disorder does sometimes seem to arise from repetitive strains, so how different are they, really?
Carpal tunnel research has shown in recent years that the main causes of the syndrome are indeed either genetic or traumatic, resulting from an actual arm injury, with some additional connections as well to a few particular illnesses. Some risk factors include genetics that create a narrow carpal tunnel area in the arm, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis or autoimmune diseases. And women are much more likely to develop carpal tunnel symptoms than are men. So arm injuries and many other factors predispose people to develop this disorder.
A carpal tunnel symptom could actually be a symptom of both a carpal tunnel problem and a repetitive strain injury, at least in the case of certain occupations. The University of Maryland Medical Center website details many job categories in which it appears that the very repetitive nature of the tasks performed is what leads to CTS. Take musicians, for example, who often hold their instruments rigidly in one position and move at least one hand in very quick, repeated motions. Hard laborers like auto assembly workers would also fall into such a category. A carpal tunnel problem may not exactly be an RSI, but the two are clearly related in these cases.
It may not be the case that a carpal tunnel symptom stems directly from an RSI, yet there is undoubtedly some relationship in certain cases. But research still shows that whatever that relationship is, the repetitive strain is more likely to have aggravated a predisposition to this sort of hand disorder that was already there. Small comfort, of course, to those who are in jobs with a high risk for getting this syndrome, since in the end a carpal tunnel problem and an RSI will feel like much the same thing.