We've already heard stories about Wii owners causing damage to their homes or injuring themselves due to overly-enthusiastic or careless waggling of the Wiimote. So the obvious solution would be to calm down your waggling, right? Not according to the doctors who were interviewed by NYTimes. While they agree that it's good that the Wii gets people active and excersising, the repetitive motions of basic Wii waggling can end up causing just as much damage and injury in the long run.

To say that Wii injuries are an epidemic would be an overstatement, but they are proliferating along with the popular video-game system. Interviews with orthopedists and sports medicine physicians revealed few serious injuries, but rather a phenomenon more closely resembling a spreading national ache: patients of all ages complaining of strains and swelling related to their use — and overuse — of the Wii.

Call it Wii Shoulder. Or Wii Knee. If there is an epidemic of anything, it probably falls under a broader label: Nintendinitis.

“Skateboarding, snowboarding, you name it,” said Dr. William N. Levine, the director of sports medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. “Take the newest fad, and there’s always a slew of specific orthopedic injuries associated with it.”

Dr. Halpern said he had treated two types of injuries: traumatic injuries like twisted knees and sprained ankles from playing the games in confined spaces, and repetitive stress problems from playing too long. A common problem is the realization by players that a full swing is not required; a flick of the wrist is often enough to return a serve or bowl a strike. As several doctors pointed out, that is the exact motion — concentrating the force of a swing in the muscles of the forearm — that can cause tennis elbow.

Miss Razz via nytimes.com »