SPRAINS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 251, 14 April 1944, Page 22

SPRAINS

(Written for "The Listener" by DR. H. B. TURBOTT, Director of the Division of School Hygiene, Health Dept.) NE of the minor troubles that can happen to any one of us at any time is the sudden wrenching or twisting of a joint that we calla sprain. Joints are held together with fibrous ligaments from one bone end to another, What happens in a sprain is simple. We over-stretch, and sometimes tear, the ligaments round the joint. Sometimes the tear is complete. Sometimes a small piece of bone is broken off with the torn ligament. The commonest site for sprains is the ankle joint. As soon as a sprain happens there is intense pain at the site. It may be so severe as to cause fainting or nausea. The joint can’t be used without pain, and there is tenderness over the area of the stretched or torn ligament. Swelling rapidly follows. After a day or so bruising appears-the bleeding that occurred deeper is now reaching the surface. It is usually possible to feel round gently and make sure there is no fracture. If the joint has its movements, however painful, there will be no dislocation. The First Aid treatment of a sprain might well begin with soaking the affected joint alternately in hot and cold water, or applying hot and cold packs. If impossible to do this apply a firm bandage for support; the bandage could well be moistened with a cooling lotion such as methylated spirits and water, or Jead and opium lotion, if either of these is available. The hot-cold soaking eases the pain; so does the cooling lotion. If a doctor is called in, he may strap the joint with elastic or adhesive strapping, or he may give a local injection of an anaesthetic such as novocaine before applying bandaging. He may, of course, desire ‘an X-ray to eliminate fracture, if he doubts the presence of a broken bone. The local anaesthetic relieves the-pain and tenderness and allows continued use and motion of the joint. By maintaining active use and motion the circulation is helped, the swelling is mechanically reduced, tissue repair is accelerated, the net result is less stiffness and pain and more rapid return to normal. Keep Moving It doesn’t matter whether the strapping or the injection method is followed, continuous use and movement of the joint is important to achieve a quick recovery and to avoid stiffness. The injection method of course, has the advantage of removing pain at once. Any strenuous use of the joint should be avoided, but ordinary movements and activities persisted with, if you want a quick recovery. Sometimes people with sprains are too apprehensive to follow the instruction of continued use and motion after injection or strapping, and these folk always recover more slowly than if they had followed the advice to use the joint. It is a fact that irrespective of the type of treatment people who return immediately to normal activity, and use and move the joint, improve much mofe rapidly than those who rest up and keep the joint still. The injection method of treatment makes the immediate use of.the joint easy, and so has tended to come into favour of recent years,