MORTHOPEDICS/SPORTS INJURIES
Muscle bruises or contusions are frequent sports damages. Most frequently seen in contact sports such as football, rugby, and basketball.
Muscle bruises happen as well in non-contact sports such as baseball and tennis.
Thigh, followed by the arm, are the most frequent damage zone. Note that most of all the muscle contusions can be treated without operation; therefore, discussion about the ideal behavior is often arising.
Signs
When there is a noticeable damage, a diagnosis of a muscle contusion should be required immediately.
Characteristically, the topic is to eliminate other eventual more serious damages.
These damages may comprise cracks (broken bones), disarticulations, and complete muscle ruptures.
Regular signs of muscle bruise damages comprise:
- Direct pain over the contused zone
- Inflammation, staining, and tenderness
- Painful assortment or movement
Muscle Contusion Injuries
When a portion of the muscle ruptures, a muscle bruise damage happens; therefore, a trouble occur to the small blood vessels called capillaries and bleeding into the muscle tissue as well.
At that level, the bleeding creates a collection of blood within and around the muscle tissue called “hematoma”.
After the preliminary damage, the inflammation is gradually increasing in over the next few days.
Behavior should focus here at the muscle damages that has been controlling this inflammation.
As the muscle tissue is healing, early movement appears to be helpful preventing scar formation.
Optimal Behavior of Muscle Bruises
Regular behaviors comprise:
- Ice:
Ice application is frequently applied on the damaged zone and may help reducing the inflammation.
Latest studies have shown the ice effects that are possibly important at the first minutes and hours of a damage.
- Early Movement:
Immobilization has been shown to be harmful to healing muscle leading to joint painfulness and muscle weaken.
In this case, soft range-of-motion activity is advised and splinting should be avoided.
If weight attitude contributes to pain, supports can help lessen pain while allowing little motion.
- Anti-Inflammatory Medications:
Both nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines (NSAIDs) and corticosteroids (cortisone) have been efficient to treat muscle
Both medicines will decrease the inflammation and push healing into the repair stage.
Note that there is final evidence that these behaviors may change the result of a muscle contusion healing, but they may be helpful to control signs.
- Surgery:
Practically all the damages regarding a muscle contusion are treated non-surgically.
Surgey is recommended in very rare circumstances, when the damage may cause a shelf defect in the muscle, although there is little scientific data supporting this method of treatment.
Bruises Difficulties
One of the uncommon difficulties of a muscle bruise is called myositis ossificans.
This uncommon difficulty may happen in more severe bruise damages, however it still uncertain why it happens to some patients and not others.
Patients who suffer of myositis ossificans show bone formation within the muscle tissue.
Finally, the bone may have been surgically removed and this removal has to be delayed, otherwise the myositis ossificans will probably recurring.
Naturally, operation should be delayed for about a year before any operating subtraction.