Injury Flashcards
How can injuries be classified as?
- Acute
- Chronic
What does acute mean?
- Sudden
- Happens in the moment
What does chronic mean?
- Slow sustained development
- Culminating in inflammation
- Develops over time
How can injuries be classified by which types of tissue?
- Hard tissue
- Soft tissue
What is hard tissue?
- Bone
What is soft tissue?
- Muscle
- Ligament
- Tendon
- Cartilage
How are injuries classified by which types of diagnosis?
- Open
- Closed
What is open diagnosis?
- Skin is broken
- Usually bleeding
What is closed diagnosis?
- Skin remains intact
What is a fracture?
- It’s caused by external forces e.g. fall
- Can be open or closed
What is a compound fracture?
- A break that is open
- The bone penetrates the skin
What is a closed/ simple fracture?
- a clean internal break to the bone
What is a green stick fracture?
- A partial break to the bone
What is a dislocation?
- Bones at a joint are forced out of it’s normal position
Soft tissue injury (muscle) - strain
- Muscle is torn due to overloading (lengthening)
What is the cause of a strain?
- Sometimes due to an ineffective warm up/ stretch
Soft tissue injury (ligament) - sprain
- Torn ligament due to a twisting or wrenching at a joint e.g. twisted ankle
What is the cause of a sprain?
- Fall, misplaced footing, loss of balance
Soft tissue injury (ligament) - Categories
- Grade 1: mild damage, joint remains stable
- Grade 2: Ligament stretched/ partial tear, joint is loose
- Grade 3: Complete tear (rupture)
Soft tissue injury (tendon) - tendon tear
- Complete or partial tear of the tendon
What is the cause of a tendon tear?
- Excessive force whilst the muscle is lengthening
What are the stages of injury?
- Inflammatory phase
- Proliferation stage
- Remodelling phase
Inflammatory phase
- Trauma- bleeding, swelling
- Up to 72 hrs
- use ice (only use heat once bleeding stops)
Proliferation phase
- Laying down of the new tissue (scar tissue)
- Up to 8 weeks
- Use heat
Remodelling phase
- Maturation of scar tissue (strength and extensibility)
- Up to a ear or longer
- Use heat
Chronic injuries
- Tennis elbow
- Tendonitis
- Shin splints
- Stress fracture
Tennis elbow
Repetitive strain caused by activities that involve loaded and repeated gripping and/or wrist extension
Tendonitis
- strain, overuse injury
Shin splints
Pain in the tibia brought on by exercise or athletic activity
Stress fracture
Repetitive force/ often from overuse
P.O.L.I.C.E principle (treatment for acute injuries)
- Protection
- Optimum loading
- Ice
- Compression
- Elevation
Protection
- Rest and protection
- If painful use assisted devices e.g. crutches
Optimum loading
- Through protecting, gentle motion can and should be encouraged as early as possible
- Promotes optimum healing
Ice
- Applying ice may help manage the swelling around it
- It can also help decrease some of the acute pain
Compression
- Compresion can be added by using an ace bandage
Elevation
- Placing your injured part on a stack of pillows
Contemporary treatments
Cryotherapy
Water therapy
Ultra sound
Massage
Electro stimulation
Compression clothing
Hyperbaric chambers
Heat therapy
Cryotherapy
- use of cold temperature
-decreases metabolic activity and slows down physiological processes - less pain (analgesic) because nerve activity is slowed down
- Constriction of blood vessels during cold phase and flushes waste products like lactic acid out during the warm phase
Benefits - reduce swelling
- reduces pain and doms
Water therapy
- water based training
- minimises impact on joint muscles and other connective tissues
Benefits - maintains cv fitness without exposing damaged tissues
Ultra sound
- acoustic sound waves that generate mechanical disruption of deep tissue
- penetrative heat
Benefits - speeds up recovery
Electrostimulation
Electrodes are placed on the skin emit a current which triggers the muscle to contract
Benefits
- offers pain relief
- assists muscular recovery
- training to support overload
Hyperbaric chambers
- high pressure of oxygen chambers which promotes recovery
Benefits - speeds up recovery’
- decreases swelling
- 25x 02 delivery
- stimulates blood vessel growth
Heat therapy
Applying heat
Benefits
- blood flow increases
- hormone release (growth hormone)
Massage
Applying mechanical pressure to soft tissues resulting in decreased muscle stiffness
Benefits
- improves blood flow
- increase muscle temperature
- reduces heart rate, anxiety, blood pressure
Compression clothing
- clothing that compresses limb/skin
Benefits - increases heat protection
- increases vr
- reduces swelling
TENS
Trans-electrical nerve stimulation
- cutaneous
- stimulates nerves
- cancels them out
- pain relief
(Around joint)
EMS
Electrical muscle stimulation
- strengthen muscle
- optimal loading (vary intensity)
(On muscle)
EIMD
Exercise induced muscle damage
DOMS
Delayed onset muscle soreness
(EIMD causes this)
What causes EIMD and DOMS?
- excessive amounts of eccentric activity cause muscle soreness
- plyometric training
Factors contributing to doms
Micro tear within muscle
Excessive lactate accumulation in muscles
Treatment of DOMS
- cryotherapy
- cool down
- compression clothing
