Acute injury

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  • Created by: senizn
  • Created on: 07-03-18 12:23

Acute Injuries

Acute injuries happen as a result of a sudden trauma to the body, for example in a football or rugby tackle, or being hit with a hockey ball. They can cause lots of damage to bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments and result in immediate pain, and usually swelling with a loss of function. They can be a result of:

  • Colliding: with another player (as in a tackle) or with an object (such as a goal post)
  • Being hit: usually by a ball (as in cricket or squash), a stick or racket (as in hockey or lacrosse) or sometimes an opponent (boxing)
  • Falling: usually either at speed (like when cycling) or from a height (rock-climbing)

Chronic Injuries

Chronic injuries are also known as overuse injuries and are a result of continuous stress on an area. Examples of overuse injuries are achilles tendonitis, shin splints or tennis elbow. These injuries tend to come on gradually over a period of time and the athlete often can't recall when it first started hurting.

To try to avoid chronic overuse injuries you should make sure you get enough rest, don't train too hard, make sure you wear the right footwear, have the right equipment for you and develop good techniques.

Soft Tissue Injuries

Soft tissue is basically anything that isn't bone! So muscles, ligaments, tendons, skin, cartilage etc. Soft tissue injuries can be either chronic or acute. They can also be open or closed:

Open

Open injuries are when the skin is broken through cuts, grazes etc

Closed

Closed injuries happen when the skin stays intact, and the injury is underneath the skin. Here are some examples:

  • Sprains - ligament damage. Ligaments attach bones to bones and keep a joint together. Sprains can occur as a result of a violent twisting or side-ways movement to the joint (such as when you roll the ankle over and sprain it)
  • Strains - muscle damage. These are also known as pulled muscles…

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