Dr Ortho Blog

Playing sports whether for fun with your friends or competitively in a professional team, comes with uninvited sports injuries. Playing Sports, Walking, Jogging and Yoga are all parameters for good health. Sports related injuries happen due to the following reasons-
 Lacuna in proper training practices
 Warming up or stretching muscles beforehand not conditioned for that sport
 Improper equipment or improper gear
 Sudden accident case
Another important reason may be the player is not in form or ready to play. The most common sports injuries are as follows:

• Strains and Sprains
Sprains and strains are very common injuries while playing sports. They share similar signs and symptoms.
Sprain is basically stretching or tearing of ligaments. Ligaments are bands of fibrous tissue that connect two bones together. Your ankle is the most common location of sprain.
A strain is basically a stretching or tearing of muscle or tendon. A tendon is a fibrous tissue that connects muscles to bones. Strains usually occur in your lower back and in the hamstring muscle of your thigh’s back.

• Knee Injuries
Your knee is made up of many important structures like bones, articular cartilage, meniscus, ligaments and tendons. These all structural components are prone to injuries.
The most common knee injuries are dislocations, fractures around the knee and sprains and tears of soft tissues (including ligaments).
The most common signs of knee injury are pain and swelling. You may face knee stiffness too. You may happen to feel a kind of instability in your knees as if something is slipping off your knees.

• Shin Splints
It is the common term used for lower leg pain that take place below the knee either in outside part of the leg on the front (anterior shin splints) or the inside of the leg (medial shin splints). Athletes, dancers and runners are more prone to shin splints. Runners are at high risk of developing shin splints. Beginners in running are most commonly prone to shin splint problem because of their changing workout regimes.

• Fractures
A broken bone is called fracture. Breakage could be a thin crack in the bone or the complete breakage. A bone can break in many dimensions like crosswise manner, lengthwise break or in several places. Most common reason for fractures is the exceeded pressure/force on the bone. Common causes of fractures are car accidents, sudden falls or sports-related injuries.

• Dislocations
When bone slips out of a joint, dislocation is said to take place. A dislocated shoulder is a very form of dislocation. Any joint in your body can be dislocated like knee, hip, ankle, or shoulder.
Since a dislocation means your bone is no longer where it should be, you should treat it as an emergency and seek medical attention as soon as possible. An untreated dislocation could cause damage to your ligaments, nerves, or blood vessels.

• Swollen muscles
The enlargement of tissues, organs and skin is visible in the body in the form of swelling. It is basically of buildup of fluid/inflammation. You can experience swelling internally or on outer skin and muscles.
Injuries or illness often result in external swelling which may visible as swollen muscles.
Acute injuries occur suddenly and accidently while playing .Sudden acute injuries show following symptoms .Strained backs, sprained ankles and fractured hands are some of the acute injuries. Acute injuries are marked by the following signs and symptoms:

• Sudden mild pain proceeding to severe pain
• Inflammation and swelling
• Difficulty in putting up weight on legs/knee/ankle/ foot
• Fragility and softness of arm/ elbow/wrist/hand/ finger is felt
• Uniform leg and muscle weakness is felt
• Stiffness in joints
Chronic injuries happen over a period of time when initial acute injury signs and symptoms are blatantly ignored. Signs and symptoms of chronic injury include:
• Overall Pain is felt in body while doing exercise /playing
• Ache in the body when you rest
• Prominent swelling
Immediately stop the activity if severe pain persists. Do not forcefully push yourself through the pain; it might put your whole career in sports to risk. A long term serious injury is hard to heal so prevent it in acute injury phase Injury cases involving severe soreness, swelling, or numbness should immediately seek medical help.

Sport Related Injuries? If you have any other information, Please add in Comments.