Soft tissue structures include skin, muscle, tendon, ligament, and fascia in the body, there are two types of injuries that can affect these structures. In an acute injury, a sudden onset of an impact that the body wasn't prepared for it is the cause and in an overuse injury, it is the postural and repetitive movement that can cause the damage to the tissue.
Acute injuries result in Laceration, avulsion, abrasion, and contusions. In the first three forms, the tissue has been separated and leads to blood loss and open wound. In contusions, however, the tissue has not been separated but there is bleeding which is trapped within the tissue and leads to edema.
Sprains are a form of acute traumatic injury which comes from applying leverage. However, It's still trauma and causes edema and scar tissues.
Strains and tendinitis are typical overuse injuries that we manual therapist treat. Sometimes there isn't a unique traumatic incident to initiate the injuries; it can result from overuse use which reduces functionality and requires treatment, and without proper healing and treatment, the tissue is unable to return to its optimum functional capacity.
Overuse injuries can occur in any part of the body and it is hard to pinpoint the exact time that it occurs, because it is accumulative, repetitive stress on the tissue. Most of these injuries are related to tendinitis (inflammation of a tendon), or bursitis (inflammation of the bursa, fluid-filled cushion pads in the joints), epicondylitis (irritation of the epicondyle, structure which surrounds the rounded parts of the bones in a joint), muscle strains, or muscle tears. Most common signs and symptoms are:
Pain
Limited range of motion
"Popping" or "snapping" feelings
Swelling
Bruising
In some cases, initial overuse injuries can be treated with RICE ( Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate) or METH( Movement, Elevation, Traction, and Heat) method. It is crucial to include other treatments alongside these initial method to properly heal the tissue: Myofascial release, cupping, Instrument-assisted myofascial technique, Active Release Technique and, Post Isometric stretching are common methods among manual practitioners to treat soft tissue injuries, some of these techniques are practice at our clinic, feel free to contact us if you have any more questions.
