Activity 10 - but What Really Happens

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BTEC National - Sport

Unit 18: Sports injuries

Activity 10 - But what really happens???

We now know the type of injuries that occur, what causes them and how to help prevent them – but we don’t know as yet what the body’s response is to injury (that is until now)!

During the next few lessons we are going to look in detail what happens to a tissue and bone once it gets damaged. The body is an amazing thing as you will see as we investigate further……

Tissue damage: When body tissue i.e. muscle, ligament etc. gets injured the healing process starts almost immediately. The various stages of this healing are:

Inflammation stage, which is the body's natural response once tissue damage occurs. Its main functions are to defend the body against harmful substances, dispose of dead or dying tissue and to promote the renewal of normal tissue. The signs of inflammation can include pain, swelling and loss of function.

The website Sports Injury Clinic gives a brief overview of what happens next, so check it out and make a few notes in the space below:

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/general/inflammation.php

One of the other physiological responses to injury is the formation of scar tissue…..

Strains & sprains

A strain (damage to a muscle or tendon) and a sprain (ligament damage) are both common in sport. Both can be very painful & and can vary in their severity.

Check out the following site to find out what a grade 1, 2 & 3 strains/sprains are………

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/injuries/a/sprains.htm

Hematoma

Your final task is to find out what a muscle hematoma is – both inter & intra. You can use the following site to give you an insight:

http://www.thesportsphysiotherapist.com/muscle-haematoma-evidence-based-management-of-the-common-cork/

Do a bit of digging, make some notes and then we can discuss your findings as a group – clarifying any points as we do...