According to reports, roughly 33 million musculoskeletal injuries are reported every year. Interestingly, 50% of these injuries are known to be related to tendon & ligament injury.
Today, tendon & ligament injury are pretty common among athletes in the country. However, anyone can also experience this injury through simple slips, falls, and twists. That’s not all; older people can also have ligament injuries because their body parts are weak and prone to wear and tear.
What are the different grades of tendon ligament injury? When should you consider going got non-surgical tendon ligament healing approaches? Why should you hire a reliable surgeon today? Read on to discover all you should know about these ligament injury-related questions.
Common causes of tendon ligament injury
Unlike bones, your tendons and ligaments aren’t hard; instead, they are soft connective tissues that enables your joints to function properly. While performing their functions, tendons and ligaments tend too stretch to certain amount. However, when these connective tissues stretch too much, an injury is most likely to happen.
Today, many factors contribute to why athletes and other people experience tendon & ligament injuries. For instance, a sudden impact to your joint can lead to injury. Two common types of tendon & ligament tears include Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears and meniscus tears.
ACL tears, which most footballers often experience, happens when an athlete quickly stops or start moving. That’s not all; a sudden and unexpected movement to the joint of your knees can also lead to ACL tears. Meniscus tears, on the other hand, can occur due to traumatic injury to the knee. These tears can also result from twisting a bent knee joint.
Different grades of tendon ligament tears and meaning
When looking for tendon ligament injury solutions, one thing you need to first consider is your ligament tear grade. Well, in case you don’t know, the ligament injuries are available in three different grades; grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3.
- Grade 1 tendon ligament injury only have mild ligament tears.
- Grade 2 ligament injury comes with moderate ligament tears.
- Grade 3 tendon ligament injury leads to rupture, which is known as a complete ligament tear.
- Non-surgical tendon ligament healing
Both grade 1 and 2 injuries can heal with non-surgical treatments, such as physical therapy, RICE treatment, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, cold laser therapy, and many more.
- Physical therapy (PT) involves using certain physical exercises to relieve shoulder pain, pain caused by tendon rupture, and many more.
- RICE treatment is a simple and effective home approach to achieving a better and well-functioning ligament.
“R” stands for “rest”. It means you need to stop any exercise or activity that can irritate the injured area.
I” stands for “ice”. This treatment approach requires you to apply ice pack on the injured area for roughly 15 minutes. This will help you reduce pain and further swelling.
“C” stands for “compression” – this means you need to reduce swelling by wrapping the affected area with tight bandage.
“E” stands for “elevation” and this means you should always elevate the affected area on pillows when sitting or lying down.
- Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections is a tendon ligament injury healing approach that has been in use since 1970s. PRP is a type of plasma that contains high concentration of platelets. These platelets contain a large amount of proteins, which can initiate and speed up new tissue growth.
- Cold laser therapy involves the use of low-intensity light to accelerate the natural relieve and healing process.
When should you find a surgeon?
You need to find a surgeon, such as Artelon, when your tendon ligament injury is on Grade 3. Grade 3 means you have a fully torn ligament, which rarely heals naturally.
A reliable surgeon, such as Artelon, will use innovative technologies to carry out the surgery on your affected area. This surgery won’t only help your joint heal the right way. In addition, it’ll also reduce your chances of experiencing a tendon ligament injury in the future.
For an ACL injury, our experts will focus on reconstruction by replacing the damaged ligament with a donor ligament. This process often require you to go into rehabilitation until your ligament becomes completely heal.
