Physical Therapy for Accident Related Injuries
Physical therapy for accident related Injuries
Recovering from an Accident Related Injury?
Accidents happen when we least expect it. Even when we do our best to plan for and avoid unwanted outcomes, accidents can catch us off guard. Injuries due to an accident can range from a minor abrasion to a life threatening injury and those that don’t heal quickly on their own can have serious personal, social and financial repercussions. As physical therapists we work with many people recovering from accident-related injuries and have seen first hand the benefits that PT can have for those needing extra help to heal.
ACCIDENTS BY THE NUMBERS
While accidents are something we all try to avoid, each year many people experience injuries due to an accident. In 2018 alone, 24.8 million people visited their doctors for care related to unintentional injuries while another 100 million visited the emergency room. As you can see, the need for post-injury care remains high
WHAT INJURIES COMMONLY RESULT FROM ACCIDENTS?
Accident-related injuries can be almost anything from scrapes to broken bones. Let’s take a look at some general categories of accident-related injury that physical therapists often treat.
Musculoskeletal injuries: Musculoskeletal injuries refer to those affecting the bones, joints, tendons, fascia, ligaments and soft tissue. Pain, headache, swelling, muscle stiffness, muscle weakness, difficulty moving and sometimes numbness and tingling are often symptoms of injuries to the musculoskeletal structures. Below are examples of musculoskeletal injuries that can occur as a result of an accident:
Muscle strains: tears in the muscle that can range from minor to severe. Usually characterized by pain, swelling, bruising, stiffness and weakness in the muscle. Minor muscle strains are often referred to as a “pulled muscle” while severe muscle strains can significantly impair the muscle’s ability to contract.
Ligament sprains: ranging from partial to complete, tears in the ligaments that connect bones together can cause pain, swelling, stiffness and in more severe cases, joint instability. Rolling an ankle while walking on uneven terrain or falling onto an outstretched hand are ways that sprains often occur.
Bone fractures: When the force on a bone is greater than what the bone can withstand, a fracture or break can occur. Often accident-related fractures require casting, immobilization and/or a period of non- or reduced weight-bearing to allow the bone to heal. Bone fractures can happen anywhere in the body during an accident from the small bones of the hand to the large bones of the pelvis and even the spine and skull.
Hematoma: hematomas are an area of pooled, often clotted blood that collects in a tissue, organ or body space. Hematomas in muscles can occur after an impact to the muscle and will lead to pain, stiffness, swelling and visible dark bruising.
Intervertebral disc injury: Disc herniations and other disc injuries can occur due to an accident. This often leads to localized back or neck pain and sometimes radiating pain, tingling or numbness in the arms and legs.
Neurologic Injuries: Neurologic injuries involve the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves and the structures they control. Symptoms often include weakness ranging from minor to total paralysis of one or more areas of the body, impaired motor control, impaired or absent sensation, difficulty using an area of the body for functional tasks like reaching, grasping or walking.
Peripheral nerve injuries: peripheral nerves connect to the spinal cord and carry information throughout the body to and from the limbs, organs, trunk, face, etc. During an accident-related trauma these nerves can be compressed by swelling, torn, or stretched causing injury to the nerve and impairing their ability to transmit motor and sensory information leading to symptoms like weakness, numbness or pain.
Concussion: concussions are considered to be mild brain injuries and result from an impact or force to the head/neck. While concussions do not show up on imaging, they impair the brain’s ability to send, receive, and process signals. Dizziness, fatigue, poor balance, blurred vision, memory impairments, headache, and light sensitivity are common symptoms of a concussion.
Traumatic brain injury: Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) range from mild to severe and can result in minor, temporary impairments to severe and life-limiting or altering impairments including coma and death. Moderate to severe TBIs can result in impairments in language, cognitive processing, balance and motor function and often require rehabilitation to help those with TBIs regain more function.
Spinal cord injuries: injuries to the neck and back can cause an injury to the spinal cord. Depending on the severity and location of the injury, it can result in muscle weakness or paralysis, changes or loss of sensation and inability to or difficulty performing movements independently.
Wounds: Burns, abrasions, lacerations, surgical incisions and punctures are examples of wounds that can occur due to an accident. Slow or poorly healing wounds are typically treated in a dedicated wound care center where you may work with physical therapists, nurses, and physicians to advise you on how to facilitate complete healing of the wound.
WHY SHOULD I TRY PHYSICAL THERAPY AFTER AN ACCIDENT?
While you will likely heal from minor accident-related injuries like a sore muscle or minor abrasion on your own, physical therapy is recommended to help you heal from more serious injuries. While it may be tempting to lay low and let your body heal on its own timeline, in many cases the “wait-and-see” and “rest is best” approaches to dealing with injury can lead to delayed healing and prolonged recovery times unless specifically prescribed by your doctor or surgeon. Our team of local physical therapists take an evidence-based and individualized active recovery approach to help facilitate and hasten recovery from day one.
Some accident-related injuries are unavoidable but in other cases a properly trained body may make these accidents less likely in the future. One of the benefits of working with a physical therapist is that as you heal from your injury, your PT will help you to address and minimize risk factors for future injury whenever possible. With physical therapy you can feel confident that you are taking a proactive approach to recovery while making your body more resilient in the future. If you have been in an accident and are looking for some help to get you back to or better than baseline, give us a call here at Evolve PT to schedule an initial evaluation with one of our excellent physical therapists.
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About EvolveNY-
Brooklyn's Premier Holistic Physical Therapy Clinics- There’s physical therapy, there’s training, and then there’s EVOLVE. We use the science of biomechanics merged with fitness to help our patients get better and stay better!
First we evaluate, then we heal, then we strengthen our clients so they can reach their goals, feel better, and live happier lives. We do so by utilizing a range of core techniques and specialized treatments to reduce pain, improve mobility, enhance physical strength and deal with the underlying issues, not just the pain itself.
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