Sports and soft tissue injuries

It is an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of participation in sport that some people get injured. In most cases these injuries are minor, but badly managed may lead to days or weeks out of sport or work. In this article we will consider some of these annoying soft tissue injuries.

Participants in sport get injured from external trauma (collision with another player or obstacle – for example a “dead leg”), or may sustain a sprain (overstretch of a ligament leading to a tear – ex: an ankle sprain) or a strain (overstretch of a muscle leading to a tear of muscle fibres - ex: a hamstring or groin strain). In all cases, the effect is disruption of the normal anatomy, leakage of blood from the vessels, bruising, swelling, inflammation and loss of function. The injury evolves in this same order – physical stress causes damage to the normal architecture of the tissues and blood vessels are torn. Blood is meant to be in the vessels, not lose in the tissues where it causes irritation and inflammation.

Now, we try to reduce the risk of injury by wearing protective gear, training properly and obeying the rules, but accidents still happen and players get hurt. A key factor in recovery time is the quantity of blood that has leaked into the tissues. If we can limit bruising, we will speed up recovery, so prompt and appropriate first aid treatment makes a huge difference.

The first aid treatment of a soft tissue injury is rice!

That’s right, “RICE”. In this case it is not eaten, but applied:

Rest – stop using the injured part. Players often try to play through injury making it much worse.

Ice – reduces pain, swelling and inflammation. Ice should be applied for 10 minutes at a time and a damp cloth must be placed between the skin and the ice to avoid a frost burn.

Compression – a compression or elastic bandage applied firmly, but not too tightly, around the injured area reduces bleeding, subsequent inflammation and swelling.  The compression bandage is applied as soon as possible and initially is applied over the ice-pack.

Elevation – Raise the injured part above the level of the heart. Once again this helps to stop bleeding and the resulting problems of bruising.

Every sportsman or woman should have a crepe or elasticated bandage in their kit bag. Each team should delegate someone to bring some ice to training sessions or games. Heat therapy, including hot baths or showers, will increase bleeding and delay healing and should be avoided for at least three days. Massage or friction treatment should also be avoided for a few days as it may induce bleeding.