Injuries are very common, especially head injuries are one of the leading causes of death and disability in adults. As per surveys conducted, 1.7 million people suffer from head injuries every year and this estimation is increasing day by day.
There are several types of head injuries from mild as a cut, bruise, bump, contusion to severe ones caused due to a concussion, fractured skull bone, deep cut, internal bleeding, brain damage, etc.
A head injury is a comprehensive term which consists of an array of injuries that damage the skull, scalp, brain, and blood vessels and tissues in the head. It is generally referred to as a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and brain injury, depending upon the type and extent of trauma.
Causes of Head Injury-
A head injury can occur due to many reasons. Some common causes of these head injuries are:
Vehicle accidents
Domestic violence
Street fights
Fall from height
Child abuse
Subdural hematomas
Brain hemorrhages
Symptoms of Head Injury-
A head injury is followed by various symptoms depending upon the intensity of the injury. Here is a list of all the possible symptoms of brain injuries:
Fatigue or sleepiness.
Extreme headache.
Confusion.
Loss of muscle control or paralysis in the part of the body controlled by the part of the brain that is affected.
Coma.
Dilation of the pupils and related visual problems; Blurred vision, photosensitivity, blindness, loss of muscle control in the eyes.
Cerebrospinal fluids might come out of the ears and nose, sometimes accompanied by blood.
Problem breathing.
Low pulse rate.
Increase in blood pressure.
Difficulty in swallowing.
Loss of hearing.
Problems in cognitive functions.
Loss of bladder and bowel control due to loss of control over muscle functions.
Loss of consciousness.
Treatment of Head Injury-
Diagnosis of a brain injury has to be detailed and very quick at the same time. It always comes under emergency cases. Some of the steps involved are:
Cardiac and pulmonary function test.
Glasgow Coma Scale test.
Pupil dilation and corneal function test.
Brain stem reflex tests.
The most common way of diagnosis is the use of CT scans and MRI scans.
A severe head injury often needs surgery to reverse symptoms like chronic fatigue, bleeding, or loss of bodily function. Diagnosis involves finding out the type and severity of the injury and treatment involves removing the problem surgically.
Take Away-
Head injuries take time to heal, but medical treatment along with neurosurgery can aid the process of recovery and also help a person to lead a healthy life in the future. Most young patients recover fully, while some older patients or patients with preexisting neurological conditions live with a degree of disability.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can occur after one has been in an accident or has faced an event that has left a scar in their memory. The accidental trauma overpowers you with sentiments of misery and weakness, which in turn can trigger PTSD. Here are a few ways in which you can get over the trauma.
Tip 1: Get moving
Tip 2: Self manage your nervous system
Tip 3: Connect with others
Once the reflex has been activated, face-to-face association with people who make you feel protected and safe is the fastest and the best method for bringing your nervous system into its right place. The kind backing of others can be important to your recovery. Search for someone you can converse with for a long period of time, somebody who will hear you out without judging you or constantly being occupied. That individual might be your better half, a relative, a companion, or an expert advisor.
Tip 4: Make healthy life changes
The ear is a very sensitive organ of the body which can be damaged very easily. Ear trauma can be caused in the outer ear or middle ear or the inner ear. Ear traumas are mostly seen occurring due to motorbike accidents, blasts happening in a war zone or sometimes at sporting events.
The outer ear, or the part of the ear that is visible, only that can sustain ear traumas or an actual loss of the part of the ear. Trauma to the outer ear can happen due to mainly motorbike injuries or injuries at sports events or occupational injuries. In the hands of a good doctor, problems caused to the outer ear can be cured just like any other cosmetic surgery.
The trauma caused to the middle ear may always not be mendable because it is the main part that helps in hearing. If harmful foreign elements enter the middle ear, they may end up damaging the external canal, tympanic membrane and the delicate bones that aid to produce the sound. Fixing problems of the middle ear though might not always be possible but a good doctor with skills and experience can restore the functioning of the middle ear.
The inner ear faces trauma when it is exposed to high decibels of noise. The inner ear sits well protected inside a bone structure but can be harmed by a penetrating gunshot injury and in such cases, it is difficult to cure the trauma caused to the inner ear.
Ear traumas can affect a person's hearing severely. It may be in milder cases cured with a cosmetic surgery but in case a trauma is caused by the noise of a bomb blast, it may permanently damage the ears.
What are the causes of ear trauma?
Tips to deal with ear trauma
A dislocated shoulder is an injury in the shoulder joint, which is the most mobile joint present in the body. A dislocated shoulder injury occurs when the upper arm bone juts out of the socket in your shoulder blade. The shoulder is capable of moving in several directions, so a shoulder dislocation can happen through either the front of your shoulder or the back of your shoulder, although most dislocations happen through the front of the shoulder.
Shoulder Dislocation Causes
Shoulder dislocations generally happen in situations involving extreme impact to the shoulders. The most common causes of dislocated shoulders include:
Shoulder Dislocation Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of a shoulder dislocation injury include:
Posterior cruciate ligament helps to hold the knee together. If there is a ligament tear, it results in pain, swelling and redness. The cruciate ligament connects the important tibia to the femur. Any injury to the posterior cruciate ligament may take months to heal and has the potential to cause instability and disability.
Signs and symptoms: The symptoms and signs of a posterior cruciate ligament injury include moderate to severe pain resulting in difficulty in walking and limp. The knee swells to a large proportion within minutes of the injury causing the knee to feel loose. There are certain situations when a patient doesn’t feel a thing about the injury and then there is a case where the pain worsens every day.
Causes: A tear in the posterior cruciate ligament appears when the shin bone gets hit. It can also occur when a person falls down with a bent knee. Some common injuries of this sort occur during motor vehicle accidents and contact sports. Apart from this, sudden accidents hitting the back portion of the knee can also result in ligament injury of the posterior cruciate ligament. Historically, men have been found to be more risk-prone to this condition as compared to women.
What are the complications?
A posterior cruciate ligament injury may result in damage to other ligaments and bones within the knee. Based on the type of injury, the long term implications are predicted by healthcare professionals. The risk of developing arthritis and long term chronic pain exists in this condition.
Diagnosis
Treatment
Nonsurgical Treatment
If you have injured just your posterior cruciate ligament, your injury may heal quite well without surgery doctor recommend simple, nonsurgical options.
Surgical Treatment
Your doctor may recommend surgery if you have combined injuries. For example, if you have dislocated your knee and torn multiple ligaments including the posterior cruciate ligament, surgery is almost always necessary.
Surgical procedures to repair posterior cruciate ligaments continue to improve. More advanced techniques help patients resume a wider range of activities after rehabilitation.
Rehabilitation
Whether your treatment involves surgery or not, rehabilitation plays a vital role in getting you back to your daily activities. A physical therapy program will help you regain knee strength and motion. Although it is a slow process, your commitment to therapy is the most important factor in returning to all the activities you enjoy.
A broken bone is commonly known as bone fracture a d it occurs when an exorbitant amount of force is applied causing the bone to split or shatter. While some minor fractures lead to cracks and crannies, others may lead to complete breakage of the bones. Despite being hard, bones are formed in such a way that they can absorb pressure to only a certain extent, beyond which they break. Statistically, the incidence of broken bones is most common in children and in old age people.
Causes of Bone Fracture:
A bone fracture can be caused due to a number of reasons; both intentional and accidental. Some of them include:
1. Accidents and injuries: Sports injuries, being hit by a car and tripping and falling are some of the typical episodes.
2. Old age: Diseases such as osteoporosis and brittle bone disease are common in aged people. As bones tend to become more fragile among the aged, they are at a greater chance of bone fractures.
Type of bone fractures:
Primarily bone fractures are of four types, based on the way the bone splits. They are:
Treatment of bone fractures
In case of a broken bone, the immediate course of action would be to reach for the first aid box. This can be done to stabilize the bone prior to hospitalization. Icing the injury, elevating the injured area to prevent further swelling and covering the wound with bandages are common measures given by an expert Orthopedic. In many cases, people also make household splints (made of newspapers) to keep the bone stabilized. Hospitalization and especially surgery can be also opted for in case of severe fractures.
Knee injuries are the most complex injuries of bone and cartilages. A direct hit can lead to this situation. You may get this injury while doing your daily activities. An activity as simple as walking or a deadly accident can lead to this injury. You never know, when you are left with a damaged knee. In critical cases, you are advised to undertake a joint replacement surgery conducted by experienced Orthopedic.
According to the latest studies, doctors replace more than a million knees or hips in a year in the United States. It is a life-changing procedure. But you need to know whether you are the right candidate or not? Follow the below-mentioned points to get a clear picture:
Reasons to replace your knee:
Knee is a complex structure of your body made up of bones, ligaments, tendons, articular cartilage, muscles and meniscus. Knee is a very important joint as it plays a crucial role in human movement and is also very much prone to injuries. Your shoulder like your knee is also composed of bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles. It is the most flexible joint of your body and because of its frequent movement is also vulnerable to injuries. Knee and shoulder injuries can happen due to various reasons such as while playing sports, carelessly falling down or accidents. Your knee is made up of many important structures, any of which can be injured.
Pain and swelling are the most common signs of knee injury. In addition, your knee may catch or lock up. Many knee injuries cause instability, the feeling that your knee is giving way.
The most common knee injuries are as follows-
Treatment of Knee Injuries-
When you are first injured, the RICE method — rest, ice, gentle compression and elevation – can help speed your recovery. The type of treatment your doctor recommends will depend on several factors, such as the severity of your injury, your age, general health, and activity level.
Nonsurgical Treatment-
Many knee injuries can be treated with simple measures, such as:
Surgical Treatment-
Many fractures and injuries around the knee require surgery to fully restore function to your leg. In some cases – such as ACL, PCL, Meniscal tears, surgery can be done arthroscopically using small incisions and minimally Invasive techniques.
The most common shoulder injuries are stated below-
Treatment of Shoulder Injuries-
A whiplash injury usually occurs when your neck gets strained after an accident that causes it to jerk. In spite of the fact that it is normally connected with car crashes, any effect or blow that causes your neck or head to jerk forward or backwards can cause a whiplash injury. The sudden shock or force extends and tears the muscles and ligaments in your neck.
Whiplash is usually caused by vehicular accidents. After the effect, the lower cervical vertebrae are constrained into a place of hyperextension while the upper cervical vertebrae are in a hyperflexed position. This leads to an irregular S-shaped in the cervical spine.
The pain of whiplash is regularly difficult to overlook. The symptoms of a whiplash injury may include the following:
Headache at the base of the skull.
Now and again, pain from the whiplash is very common. In different cases, it can take about a few hours to days before your neck starts to hurt. Over a course of time, a whiplash can be easily healed on its own. To help with the recovery, one needs to consider the following treatments:
The time of recovery relies upon how serious your whiplash is. Most cases are relieved in a couple of days. However, other neck strains may take weeks or longer to recover. Keep in mind that everybody recovers at a different pace.
Once the intense indications of neck strain are gone, your specialist will most likely require you to begin exercising. This will make your neck muscles more flexible and stronger. It will help you both recover and decrease the chances of straining your neck again later on.
Degloving or Avulsion is an injury that is caused when the underlying muscles or bone are ripped off from the top layer of an individual’s skin. This can happen to any part of the body depending upon its type. Degloving involves massive loss of blood and death of tissues which makes it life-threatening. This Degloving is majorly caused by trauma with other causes such as accidents or injuries where the skin is pulled away from the body at comparatively low speed or an individual’s body part pulled away by the speed. There are basically two types of Degloving Injuries: Open-Degloving Injuries and Closed-Degloving Injuries.
Types of Degloving Injuries
● Open-Degloving Injuries: When one’s muscles and bones are exposed due to degloving, it is known as open degloving injury. This can happen to any part of the body, but the most common regions are face, scalp, torso, and legs. It is a life-threatening injury because it has more blood loss and hence requires immediate treatment to control blood loss and infection.
● Close-Degloving Injuries: Another type is a closed-degloving injury which is not always visible. In this type of Degloving, the top layer of the skin is detached from the inner layer creating a gap under the skin. This gap between the tissues is known as Morel-Lavallée lesions that are filled with blood, fat, and lymph fluids. This type is difficult to diagnose as the bruise is the only visible symptom. This reason makes it life-threatening as it is only diagnosed in MRIs. Closed- Degloving injuries are mainly caused in knees, hips, torso, scapula or shoulder blade and lower spine.
Causes of Degloving Injuries-
There can be a number of causes which lead to Degloving Injuries. These include trauma, animal bites, falling horizontally or vertically, accidents, sports and injuries caused by metal instruments or equipment.
Treatment of Degloving Injuries-
The treatment of Degloving Injuries takes into account many factors of the problem, its type, part of the injury and intensity. The most important thing is to prevent the infection from spreading. Minor Degloving requires bandaging of the part to heal it but most of the time it needs surgeries and other treatment options.
In the Open-Degloving Injuries, as the injury is exposed, one might need amputation, skin transplant, and reattachment of the skin or fingers. These treatments require several surgeries and physical therapies post-surgery. The treatment for Closed-Degloving Injuries does not require major surgeries. It can be treated by Sclerotherapy, elimination of dead tissue and draining of fluids between the gaps followed by physical therapies. One should make sure of the injury even after the treatment and if anything like swelling, redness, body pain and fever occur, the doctor should immediately be consulted.
Take Away-
Degloving Injuries are serious injuries and can be life-threatening if not treated immediately and rightly. There are many causes of it, mainly accidents, where the skin is ripped off from layers underneath and bones as well. The treatment of the injury depends upon its type, severity, and part of the body where it happened. In the Open- Degloving Injuries, one has to go through a number of surgeries followed by physical therapies. In the Closed-Degloving Injuries, the treatment is not always surgical and is also followed by physical therapies.