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Upper Extremity Disorders in Esports

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Handbook of Esports Medicine

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Abstract

Arguably, the most important and essential parts of a gamer’s body are their hands. Subjective data has found that actions per minute for games like Starcraft II can reach upwards of 300–600. That breaks down to 10 actions per second. With a total of 34 individual muscles coordinating those delicate movements, a multitude of issues can arise.

Injuries to the upper extremity in the esports population most likely result from chronic microtraumas rather than acute processes. As a result, symptoms may be insidious, and worsen slowly, often below the threshold of a player’s consciousness.

Furthermore, because of the high level of importance placed on the upper extremity, exploration of how the symptoms have affected the player’s functionality is critically important. What are they prevented from doing because of the symptoms? If the answer is “nothing”, then focus should be placed on prevention and rehabilitation. If players have begun to adjust their play style or lifestyle as a result, such as switching keybinds due to discomfort or weakness, then more aggressive treatment is warranted. As with any field of medicine, an understanding of the primary goals of care are essential to effective practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GamerDoc, Washington, DC, USA

    Lindsey Migliore

  2. Upper Marlboro, MD, USA

    Kristen Beckman

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Correspondence to Lindsey Migliore .

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  1. GamerDoc, Washington, DC, USA

    Lindsey Migliore

  2. 1HP, Washington, DC, USA

    Caitlin McGee

  3. Level Up Sports Medicine, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Melita N. Moore

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Migliore, L., Beckman, K. (2021). Upper Extremity Disorders in Esports. In: Migliore, L., McGee, C., Moore, M.N. (eds) Handbook of Esports Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73610-1_2

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