Wiiitis: when Wii injuries get a name

Remember that old (by old we mean 1990) Nintendo related medical condition where people’s thumbs got sore because they played on their NES way too much? “Nintendinitis” was the term for the condition, and it was first used by a Wisconsin doctor to describe the condition of a 35-year-old lady who played too much. Well, news is that Nintendo once again gets some marketing support from the medical folks. This time the condition is called “Wiiitis.”

The Doctor responsible for the term is Dr. Julio Bonis, and apparently this doctor played a bit too much. The good doctor writes in the New England Journal of Medicine:

The variant in this patient can be labelled more specifically as “Wiiitis” …The treatment consisted of ibuprofen for one week, as well as complete abstinence from playing Wii video games. The patient recovered fully.

Reuters reports that the good doctor was convinced to write a case report on “Wiiitis” because a friend of his suffered from a similar condition. Bonis supposedly found other cases similar to this and he feels that he should give a name for the undiagnosed condition.

Yes, it’s not tennis elbow, it’s Wiiitis. Having said that, we now wonder what they’ll call that pain in the wrists that FPS experts get when they compete at a LAN party non-stop for 24 to 48 hours. Would Carpal Tunnel Syndrome still be an apt description? Or should they start calling it FPS-itis?

Remember that old (by old we mean 1990) Nintendo related medical condition where people’s thumbs got sore because they played on their NES way too much? “Nintendinitis” was the term for the condition, and it was first used by a Wisconsin doctor to describe the condition of a 35-year-old lady who played too much. Well, news is that Nintendo once again gets some marketing support from the medical folks. This time the condition is called “Wiiitis.”

The Doctor responsible for the term is Dr. Julio Bonis, and apparently this doctor played a bit too much. The good doctor writes in the New England Journal of Medicine:

The variant in this patient can be labelled more specifically as “Wiiitis” …The treatment consisted of ibuprofen for one week, as well as complete abstinence from playing Wii video games. The patient recovered fully.

Reuters reports that the good doctor was convinced to write a case report on “Wiiitis” because a friend of his suffered from a similar condition. Bonis supposedly found other cases similar to this and he feels that he should give a name for the undiagnosed condition.

Yes, it’s not tennis elbow, it’s Wiiitis. Having said that, we now wonder what they’ll call that pain in the wrists that FPS experts get when they compete at a LAN party non-stop for 24 to 48 hours. Would Carpal Tunnel Syndrome still be an apt description? Or should they start calling it FPS-itis?