What should I do in case of an acute sports injury?
A sports injury is not just an injury that occurs during exercise. In our daily lives we encounter many, such as ankle sprains, muscle strains and strain injuries, heel pain and so on can actually be called sports injuries.
Usually, in the case of acute sports injuries, many people are very scared, do not know what to do, so what to think of what to use, creams, sprays, hot compresses, ah what have come. When you see a doctor, but hear the doctor say you are not handled correctly, can not be so ah and so on, you will be very worried again. So what else can we do ourselves in the period before we can see a doctor? How to deal with it is the right thing to do? In fact, the first and best doctor after the injury is yourself, the correct acute treatment will help a lot in healing. Here we teach you the PRICE technique, how to deal with acute sports injuries.
What is the PRICE technique?
PRICE is a combination of the initials of five words in English. The Chinese meaning is: “Protect, Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate”. And with the help of a doctor, we can add two more M’s, namely physical therapy and medication.
PRICE technique is used for acute muscle, ligament and other soft tissue strains, sprains, or other bruising injuries. It is the gold standard for the treatment of acute sports injuries. Within the first 24-48 hours of an acute sports injury, injuries to soft tissues such as muscles and ligaments can cause such things as muscle tears, rupture of blood vessels, and the onset of swelling and pain at the site of the injury. Increased bleeding from broken blood vessels further triggers secondary hypoxic injury, leading to cellular tissue necrosis. Therefore, early treatment is aimed at effectively controlling excessive bleeding.
How should we implement the PRICE technique?
1. Protection
”Protection” is actually well understood, that is, to protect the injured area from re-injury. For joint sprains, attention needs to be paid to protecting it from further sprains, and to avoid movements similar to those that occurred with the injury. For soft tissue muscle tendon injury, it is protected from excessive strain or strain state, avoid causing pain and other uncomfortable actions. Reduce the pain of the injured part, to avoid suffering again or continue the cause of injury, is the most important purpose of protection. If conditions allow, you can use some splints or temporary fixings, so that the injured part is better protected.
2.Rest
The so-called “rest”, not just to reduce the activity, the body rest, mainly to limit the activity of the injured part and get rest, so more includes the concept of “local brake”.
After any muscle, bone or joint injury, rest and braking is the first step. You need to stop exercising immediately to allow time for the injury to heal. For example, when you sprain your ankle, you should not normally walk on the injured foot with weight. The injured area should be fully rested and should not be used or stressed with weight. It is usually necessary to rest the injured area for 1-2 days. If a more serious injury occurs, you will need to go to the hospital. In this case, crutches, splints or plaster supports may be needed to protect the injured area for better rest.
Minor injuries caused by repetitive motion can accumulate into larger injuries, so it is important to know when to stop exercising. Usually with enough rest and treatment, minor injuries can heal without further deterioration.
When a minor injury occurs during exercise, people often feel that they can just grit their teeth and get through it. In fact, with this approach, sometimes the pain or discomfort seems to ease a bit. There are many reasons for this. During exercise, the nerve fibers respond to mechanical activity signals, similar to how touching and touching can reduce the transmission of impulses from nociceptive nerve fibers. The practice of gritting one’s teeth to get through may reduce pain signaling and relieve some of the pain. This phenomenon is mentioned in the doctrine of pain gating. Other factors include, for example, the mental state during exercise, which can also play a role in reducing pain. However, pain is a signal of injury, and pain reduction by these methods does not reduce local damage to the damaged tissue itself, and can cause more serious injury if it persists.
3.Ice packs
Ice, more systematically known as cryotherapy, is one of the most widely used methods for treating acute sports injuries. It is economical, easy to use and convenient, and can help control the development of swelling and inflammation in the injured area. Ice should be applied as early as possible after an injury to aid in earlier recovery.
The main principles of ice are.
(1) constrict the blood vessels in the injured area to reduce bleeding, thus reducing swelling.
(2) To relieve pain.
(3) Relieving muscle spasm.
(4) Reduce the risk of cellular tissue damage by decreasing the metabolic rate.
When performing ice therapy, do not directly touch the ice to the skin. Use a towel or clothing to wrap the ice pack before applying ice. If ice cannot be found, use a bag of frozen chestnut rice or frozen peas. So sometimes even a glass of cold water will do.
Each ice pack time is generally held within 15-20 minutes, then remove the ice pack and rest for a few minutes to allow the injury to warm up and return to room temperature. Depending on the injury, this can be repeated several times. Within 1-2 days after the damage, ice should be used as much as possible.
4.Pressure
Compression techniques are generally used within 24-48 hours of injury and can help limit the progression of swelling at the injured site; they can also provide additional support protection at the injured site. Compression of the injured area increases the pressure in the tissue and narrows the blood vessels, thereby slowing the development of inflammation and preventing further swelling within the joint. If this swelling is allowed to develop, it can severely impair limb function.
There are several ways to implement compression techniques. One of the most effective is the use of a compression bandage to wrap the injured area. A compression bandage is usually a type of bandage with elasticity, which is commonly referred to as an elastic bandage. The advantage of compression bandages is that they are easy to use and the elastic support provides enough local pressure to stop excessive bleeding and reduce blood leakage into the surrounding tissue of the injury. Conventional non-elastic bandages, training tape or even a piece of clothing cloth can also be used, but care needs to be taken not to wrap too tightly as this may cause local tissue necrosis. When you find the end of the limb, such as fingers, toes, etc., the skin color pale, cold, may be too tight bandage caused by the bandage, need to be removed immediately, should be taken seriously.
When wrapping from the distal end of the injured part, layer by layer covering to the proximal end of the wrap. Pressure can be combined with the use of ice bags, that is, the bandage wrapped in ice bags pressure wrapping on the injured area. Compression at the same time for ice, two birds with one stone.
5.Elevation
Elevation, usually means to elevate the affected limb. It is a use of gravity to help blood and tissue fluid flow back to reduce swelling at the injured site, to relieve pain. After an injury, place the injured area as high above the level of the heart as possible to use gravity to help blood return to the heart. Elevation of the affected limb is recommended around the clock for 48 hours after the injury. For example, for lower extremity injuries, maintain a stepwise elevation of the ankle over the knee and the knee over the hip as much as possible. For upper extremity injuries, a brace or sling can be used. If it is not possible to keep the injured area above the heart level, at least keep it at the same level. Do not go below that level as much as possible to avoid aggravating the swelling.
6.Physical therapy and drug treatment
Under the guidance of a doctor, physical therapy and medication can also be administered if necessary. Physiotherapy can use ultrasound and other physical therapy machines, for local contusion of soft tissues and ligaments to reduce swelling and promote healing of the combined use. In addition, the claw patch method of muscle patching can be used, which is very effective for local soft tissue edema.
Medications, usually using NSAIDS class of anti-inflammatory painkillers. Many patients are worried about this type of drugs, thinking that they can tolerate it, why should they take painkillers. In fact, this kind of drugs and opioid pain medication is different, generally will not have into the hidden, it is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, but also different from hormones, the main effect is anti-inflammatory. Acute injury, there will be sterile inflammation, pain is mostly built on the basis of inflammation, through the drug control of inflammation, pain naturally get relief.
What else should we pay attention to in the acute phase of sports injuries?
For acute sports injury treatment also has a word, that is, HARM, it is the combination of the initials, named HARM hazard means to warn us which is the early injury within 72 hours can not do things? The Chinese meanings are: heat therapy, alcohol, running and massage, respectively.
1.Heat therapy
It is easy to understand that in the acute stage, you should not use hot compresses, and those will be hot, irritating ointment or cream and other substances. These substances will cause local inflammation and bleeding edema more powerful, not conducive to early healing.
2.Alcohol
Acute injury period, can not drink alcohol. The effect of alcohol instead tends to increase swelling, not easy to subside. At the same time, alcohol may stimulate blood vessels to affect the blood supply, is not conducive to further tissue healing.
3.Running or training
After the injury should try to use the injury site to get sufficient rest, if excessive running or then participate in training, will aggravate the damaged tissue. Therefore, before the complete healing, try to stop the previous sports and training.
4.Massage
Early injury is to be sure to pay attention to not local massage. Originally the local bleeding tissue through a series of treatment, slowly vasoconstriction swelling, but if the massage will again induce local bleeding, aggravating the symptoms of swelling and pain. But after the acute period, you can use some light massage to help recovery.