Nintendonitis makes it into New England Journal of Medicine

The primary symptoms include sudden and intense pain in the shoulders or one of the extremities. Odd, really, because the patient has not experienced any recent injuries nor trauma. Stranger still, he or she has not participated in any sports or physical exercise of late. A rare circulatory condition? A degenerative muscle disease? No, it's Wiiitis (pronounced Wee-eye-tis). And this week, the ailment has been offered up to the New England Journal of Medicine for further study.

Dr Julio Bonis, 29, of Boston wrote to NEJM about the condition after he woke up recently with a sore shoulder. "It felt like a sports injury, but he had been a bit of a couch potato lately. Then he remembered his new Wii," Reuters reported.

"What convinced me to send the case report was that a friend of mine, after playing Wii Sports suffered from a similar complaint. I have not found other cases in my clinical practice, but it is probably an underdiagnosed condition," Bonis told Reuters.

Nintendo's Wii, which began selling in Britain less than a year ago, has developed a rabid fan base, winning over gamers with a unique style of participatory gameplay. Gamers must act out their movements – requiring jumps, swivels, thrusts, parries and bowling tosses – to score higher points. Wii players often complain of soreness the following day. It's given rise to the phrase "Wii elbow" and triggered health warnings from The British Chiropractic Association.

But fear not, Wii warriors. There is a hopeful, albeit painful, cure. "The treatment consisted of ibuprofen for one week, as well as complete abstinence from playing Wii video games," Bonis prescribes. "The patient recovered fully."