SoftFlex™ computer gloves designed by a hand surgeon clinically proven to relieve and prevent painful computer related wrist pain.

Dr. Eberbach is a board certified surgeon with more that 15 years of surgical experience, much of it treating hand and nerve injuries. He received his M.D. with distinction from the University of Michigan Medical School, completed his surgical internships at the university’s affiliated hospitals, and his plastic surgery residency, hand training, and craniofacial fellowship at the University of Miami.

He began his career as a plastic surgeon in Tampa Bay where he has practiced since 1989. He is also a clinical assistant professor of surgery at the University of South Florida.

Recent dependence on computer keyboards and mice in the workplace has resulted in a dramatic increase in wrist and hand complaints. These problems range from wrist soreness and tendonitis to the severe pain and disabling numbness of advanced Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Workers' compensation claims are increasing and failed treatment is common and expensive. There is a general failure to recognize that computer-associated CTS is a new form of median nerve compression neuropathy, and not traditional CTS. Treatment has remained unchanged through the computer revolution and is addressing the wrong cause. We need to recognize this different cause in computer keyboard operators, and alter our treatment accordingly.

Nerve tissue is the most pressure sensitive tissue in the body. Rising pressure in the carpal tunnel reduces blood flow to the nerve and repeated direct trauma can cause disruption of the nerve itself. Both mechanisms cause the symptoms of median neuropathy consisting of local pain in the wrist and forearm with associated numbness of the first three fingers of the hand. Symptoms are particularly troublesome at night and frequently prevent sleep. Pressure is the key factor causing this nerve damage.

Traditionally, CTS develops in people with jobs requiring repetitive motion. This "overuse" results in inflammation, swelling and damage to critical structures running through the confined carpal tunnel. A nerve conduction study measures reduced speed of nerve impulse travel across the base of the palm and wrist confirming nerve damage. The treatments prescribed include rigid splinting in a neutral position, rest, diuretics, and anti-inflammatory medications. This keeps the tunnel as large as possible while reducing the swelling and pressure. When treatment fails, a surgeon decompresses the tunnel by an incision in the palm to allow the space to expand which reduces the pressure and stops the pain and damage.

Computer-associated CTS masquerades as CTS but is not the same injury. Most computer users rest their wrists on the desk or a wrist pad. This concentrates the weight of the arms and hands directly on a highly vulnerable two square inches at the wrist over the unprotected median nerve. With computer-associated CTS, the damage comes from the force of external contact pressure not from swelling in the carpal tunnel. Nerve conduction studies cannot distinguish this different location or cause. Splinting by uncomfortably tight straps and rigid braces will only add to the pressure. Furthermore, surgical treatment will fail because the site of injury is not the hand's carpal tunnel but farther up on the wrist. Nerve damage, once present, may not be reversible. The first goal of treatment must be to maximally protect the nerve from contact pressure trauma before it starts.

SoftFlex Computer Gloves™ address this treatment method by design. SoftFlex works where others fail because each glove has two cushions that run parallel on both sides of the median nerve at the wrist. When a computer keyboard or mouse user rests his wrists, these cushions absorb and divert the external pressure away from the median nerve. This product eliminates the external pressure that is specific to keyboard users to prevent and treat computer-associated CTS.

In summary, the most frequent cause of nerve injury is pressure. Keyboard users are at high risk for this injury because of externally applied pressure at the wrist. Prevention and treatment must remove or reduce this pressure to be effective. Because of its unique design, SoftFlex is able to divert the pressure off the median nerve and help prevent this new syndrome.