We face injury once or multiple times in our lifetime, and these are common. There could be many possible reasons for this, which might be sports, accidents, falls, or hits. Now here we’re going to discuss the soft tissue injuries and its treatments.
Knowing the perfect signs and symptoms of the soft tissues you may opt for a good soft tissue injury treatment which will help you to get the right care. In case you don’t take proper soft tissue injury treatments then it may cause pain, swelling and loss of functionality of that specific body part.
What are Soft Tissue Injuries?
In a very simple way the soft tissue injury is referred to as the damage of the tendons, muscles, and ligaments in the body. It may occur due to some sort of sprain, strain or overuse of any specific body part.
Depending upon the intensity and severity these are classified under two different categories where grade 1 takes one to two weeks and grade 2 takes three to four weeks.
Acute Injury : – These are low impact injuries or can say a minor one which are caused due to sudden trauma, fall, and twist. There are few examples of acute injuries which include contusions, strains, and sprains.
Overuse Injury:- These are severe grade injuries occur whenever an athletic activity is done repeatedly, and the body doesn’t have enough time to heal frequently. Its examples are Tendinitis and bursitis.
Treatment of Common Acute Soft Tissue Injuries
Now to treat the common acute injuries, we must follow the RICE protocol which tells us about the Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation approaches.
Rest :- Here a person should take regular breaks from the activity which may cause injury. Physiotherapists or a doctor may recommend the use of crutches.
Ice: – You can use ice or cold packs for at least 20 minutes in a day. It’s further advisable that you should apply ice directly to the skin.
Compression : – It’s quite helpful in prevention of blood loss and swelling, and for this you can wear an elastic compression bandage.
Elevation : – In order to reduce the inflammation and swelling, it’s good to put injury at a higher level than your heart while you are on rest.
Now let’s discuss a few common examples of soft tissue injuries
Sprain
In a general term we can say sprain is the stretch or tear of ligament. In general ligaments are referred to as the strong band of connective tissue which make a perfect connection between the ends of the bone. It further helps in providing the stability and support to the body’s joint. Let’s understand with an example – Knee ligaments which connects the thigh bone with shinbone.
You must note down that the knee, ankles, and wrists are the most vulnerable parts which may be prone to sprains. Sprain in the ankle happens after the foot turns inward or an extreme tension is applied on the ligaments. Whereas knee sprain occurs after the instantaneous twist.
And according to the intensity and severity these are classifieds under different grades
Grade 1 : – It’s a mild pain sprain which occurs after the slight stretching and damage of ligament’s fibres.
Grade 2: – It falls under the moderate category, where this is referred to as the partial tearing of the ligaments. In this abnormal looseness occurs in the joint, when it moves in certain ways.
Grade 3: – It’s extremely severe where the ligaments get completely damaged or teared down. This may cause significant instability and can make a joint nonfunctional.
After the complete analysis of the intensity of the pain, swelling, inflammation and bruising. The physiotherapist may recommend you physical exercises for the sprain which may include – balance and control exercises, range of motion exercises, stretching exercises, and range of motion exercises.
Furthermore, treatment of mild sprain may include the RICE protocols while moderate needs bracing for a certain period. And the most severe pain seeks the surgery to replace the entire ligaments.
Strain
Strain is a kind of soft tissue injury that occurs to muscle or tendons, mostly happens in leg, foot or any other parts of the body. This is caused due to stretching in muscles or tendons or it may occur due to the partial or entire tear of muscles and tendons combination.
Muscle spasm, muscle weakness, swelling, inflammation, cramping and pain are the symptoms of strain in the body.
Mosty the sports persons who are involved in football, hockey, boxing etc. have greater chances of sports injury including the sprain. Because while playing the above games there’s a requirement of quick start, jumping, running.
However there are certain sports where you may experience the greater chances of hand and elbow sprains. It might be gymnastics, tennis, golf, throwing etc.
There are several treatments and physical exercises are for the spains which may include –
- Take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as ibuprofen, which help in reducing the pain and allows you better movement. If you have kidney problems then you should avoid them.
- PRICE formula can be pretty much helpful treatment of the affected muscles. Where PRICE refers to protection, rest, ice, compression and elevation. Ice is a well-known anti-inflammatory agent which provides soothing to inflammation.
- The physiotherapist may also recommend you to follow certain exercises including – thigh bruise, and strain exercises. Which further can be extended to quad sets, straight leg, quadriceps stretch, heel slide, wall squat, step up etc.
Best Physiotherapy Clinic for Soft Tissue Sports Injury
Anodyne Spine Clinic specializes in different kinds of soft tissue sports injury treatments. A team of specialised professionals including physiotherapists offers you valuable services in the field of pain management, spine related pain and sports injury. We also provide training sessions for working professionals so as to reduce the risks of spine related pain. We have treated more than 10K patients so far, belonging to different parts of the world. We are one of the best physiotherapy clinics for soft tissue injury treatments.