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Essay Unit 15 - Sports Injury and Assessment
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the signs and symptoms of sports injuries, followed by the physiological and psychological responses and a case study
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Signs and Symptoms of Sports Injuries and ThePhysiological and Psychological Responses to Injury
and Rehabilitation
Acute injuries
These occur because of a sudden force exerted directly to the tissue, this could be contact
with other player or an object such as a ball or stick. Acute injuries can effect the bone,
connective tissue, muscle, bursae and joints, they can also effect more than one tissue at a time.
As the signs and symptoms of acute injuries usually present rapidly, they can be easy to identify.
Injuries result from tissues being unable to respond to a force produced, the kind of force applied
will determine the type and severity of a sporting injury, these include compression, tension and
shear forces. Compression forces push and compact tissues together unlike tension forces that
pull tissues apart and shear forces involve the twisting of tissues. Other forces that can effect an
injury include: gravity, ground reaction force, impact of objects and ligament and
musculotendinous forces.
There are five primary variables involved in sporting injuries: timing of the movement, it is
the duration of the load that causes the injury, this is dependent on both the load and the
duration. Next is the position or location, the position of specific joints or the body as a whole will
determine what injury occurs. Displacement involves comparing the initial and final positions of
the body or tissues involved and velocity is the rate at which the body/ tissues involved are
displaced, this is a key factor in the severity of acute injuries. The final primary variable is
acceleration, the rate of change in velocity of an object. These variables will not only govern the
kind of injury that occurs but the severity of sed injury.
Fractures
Fractures are the result of an excess of force being applied to the bone in a specific
location or direction, although fractures are one of the most common sporting injuries the level
of severity can differ between each type. The most recognisable signs of a fracture can appear
almost immediately in most cases and these include but are not limited to: pain, swelling and
discolouration around the affected area, with bruising presenting soon after. With more sever
fractures symptoms may include angulation, the affected are presenting at an unusual angle,
with the patient being unable to move or put weight on the injury.
Fractures can also be split into two types: open/compound, when the bone breaks through
the skin, potentially causing further complications, and closed, when the skin remains unbroken
and the bone is not visible. Under the blanket term of fracture there are 7 classifications:
transverse, linear, oblique (both displaced and non-displaced), spiral, greenstick and
comminuted. These classifications simply establish the way in which the bone breaks. Another
contributor to fractures may be a previous diagnoses effecting bone strength such as
osteoporosis.
Ligament sprains
Ligaments support and strengthen joints, their main function is to keep the bones of the
skeleton in proper alignment and prevent abnormal movement. As ligaments play such a vital
role in the body, injuries can put athletes out for prolonged periods of time and have the
potential to never fully heal/ increase the chance of the injury reoccurring. Injuries to ligaments
materialise through excessive movement of a joint: hyper extension or hyper inversion or the
twisting motion of a joint. After a ligament sprain occurs the effected joint may be painful and
tender to the touch with bruising potentially occurring around 20-30 minutes post injury, this
may cause difficulty when trying to move the joint. And audible pop or feeling of tearing is also a
common sign of a ligament tear and this will arise at the time of the injury, with muscle spasms
, also being a possibility. If the ligament is fully torn it will lead to impaired movement and result
in a looseness in the joint or simply an inability to move the joint normally.
Much like fractures, ligament sprains can be divided into classifications, representing the
severity of the sprain. A grade I sprain involves the stretching or mild tear of the ligament
causing no or little instability to the joint. A grade II sprain is a little more serious but still
classifies as an incomplete tear, these have the potential to cause some looseness at the joint. A
complete tear or rupture of a ligament falls into a grade III sprain. Although these do not involve
a break to the bone, the pain is rather similar as it will be next to impossible to put weight on the
joint or use the affected limb due to instability.
Dislocation/Subluxations
A dislocation is defined as the abnormal separation of a joint, this will usually occur due to
trauma from a direct force but can also occur during regular activities when the muscles or
tendons in surrounding joints are weak. The most common dislocation to occur would be a
dislocation of the shoulder joint. This is caused by a direct postereolateral force on the
glenohumeral joint. Due to certain conditions, some individuals may have a natural disposition to
dislocations due to a pre-existing instability of a joint, in this case the muscles are essentially
‘overwhelmed’ with the force, hence dislocation occurs.
After a dislocation, an individual will present with severe pain, even with the slightest
movement of the joint, swelling and significant haemorrhaging around the joint are signs of a
dislocation. A visible deformity is one of the fist cues when diagnosing a dislocation however this
may not be the case with subluxation as these occur when the joint is not fully separated.
Meniscal tears
Mensical tears are specific to the knee as the menisci are found in the knee joint. ‘C-
shaped’ pieces of fibrocartilage, they act as shock absorbers in the knee, preventing the bones
from colliding into each other alongside providing stability, distributing axial load and supplying
lubrication to the joint. Usually caused though a twisting motion when the knee is flexed,
meniscal tears may feel like a popping sensation, causing immediate swelling and stiffness.
Besides a twisting motion, meniscal tears can also be caused by excessive kneeling. Bucket
handle, radial, flap and horizontal are all types of meniscal tear, usually treated with surgery.
Another common symptom associated with tears in the menisci is difficulty when performing
extension of the knee or feeling that the knee is locked in place, this is called pseudo locking.
Hematoma
Hematomas are defined as an abnormal collection of blood outside of a blood vessel, most
well known and dangerous of which being to the head, known as an intracranial or subdural
hematoma, more broadly, a traumatic brain injury. These bleeds are caused by damage to a
blood vessel wall, an artery, vein or capillary has sustained a rupture causing blood to leak into
the surrounding tissues where it does not belong.
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