Paper Example on Soft Tissue Injury and Dysfunction

The Difference Between Soft Tissue Injury and Dysfunction

The soft tissue injury refers to the trauma experienced by any tendon, ligament, skin, or muscles of the body. The injuries could arise from sporting activities or industrial setting, and they include overuse or acute traumatic injury. The acute trauma develops suddenly, but the overuse injuries develop from repetitive use. The acute trauma in most cases come from a sudden force applied on a body part leading to the discomfort. The overuse injury could also be referred to as a form of repetitive trauma and not an injury, which build over a while (Edlich, Rodeheaver, Thacker, Winn, & Edgerton, 1977). Some of the common acute trauma injuries include lacerations, abrasions, and avulsions where there is an open wound and bleeding occurs risking infection in that area. In other cases, the bleeding could be severe and lead to a shock. The lacerations and avulsions could be sutured for proper wound healing without forming a scar. Contusions are a form of acute tissue trauma but have no open would since clotting mechanism traps the bleeding. This situation may lead to swelling of the injured area and applying pressure on the surrounding blood vessels. The overuse injuries are as a result of overstretching the muscles or other connective tissues to their limits which leads to an irritation which limits the functionality of a person and requires healing. Strains and tendinitis are examples of overuse injuries, but with treatment, before progressive use, the body can fully recover. When the tissue injuries occur a person is likely to experience pain, swelling, snapping feeling, and a limited range of motion. On the other end, soft tissue dysfunction refers to the adhesion, scarring, within the soft tissues as a result of immobilization, surgery, or radiation. The dysfunction may lead to pain and interfere with the movement for months or after years after the treatment. The tissue dysfunction is also referred to as the musculoskeletal disorder and is also referred to as the repetitive injury (McKone, 1997). When a person experiences the musculoskeletal disorder, the body begins to fatigue which triggers the body to offset the imbalance. However, when the body cannot correct the situation, an imbalance occurs, and when it consistently recurs, a musculoskeletal disorder occurs. Some of the soft tissue dysfunction include carpel Turmel syndrome, epicondylitis, and digital neuritis among other. In most cases, a bad posture, especially at the workplace, is linked to the soft tissue dysfunction. The back pain, upper and lower body aches are the popular symptoms of people suffering from this disorder. Some of the causes of the problem are a sedentary lifestyle, occupational demands, minimal fitness, and muscle tightness among other reasons.

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Common Causes of Both Soft Tissue Injury and Dysfunction

Despite the soft tissue injury and dysfunction showing different presentation or affecting the patients differently, they may have common causes that can be treated and improve mobility. These problems progress in a cycle until a person in daily life is affected entirely. These causes affect the neural, skeletal, and myofascial systems. The problem takes time to develop into a disorder.

Fig 4: the common causes of soft tissue injury and dysfunction (http://www.velocity-pt.co.uk/blog/common-causes-signs-symptoms-soft-tissue-dysfunction-described).

Body composition refers to the elements used to describe health and fitness in most cases it describes the ration of fat, muscle, and bone in the body. The same elements are used to reveal the obesity, overweight or normal weight. Thus, being overweight or obese increases the risks of tissue injury or dysfunction. For instance, excessive weight increases the chance of fracture especially for the athletes as the weight increases stress on the skeletal system. Additionally, it may increase stress on the muscle to support the skeletal system on intense activities which may lead to injury of the muscles tissues. Another common cause of the lifestyle imbalance, for instance, the sedentary lifestyle and occupational requirements which could cause joint problems of lead to issues linked to bad postures such as back and neck pain. Also, the resting position may contribute to the problem. For instance, in the morning after sleeping a bad posture neck or back pain may acutely occur. Similarly, when the same pattern of sleeping occurs consistently in a wrong orientation of the body, it may expose a person to a serious problem such as problems with spinal cord misalignment. Moreover, the synergistic dominance as a situation which occurs when the inappropriate muscles take the functions or an inhabited prime mover. Such occurrences affect the functioning of muscles and thus flexibility due to injuries on the tissues. For instance, a person who has been affected by the synergistic dominance will not be able to extend or fold the arm or limb conveniently. It also affects the neuro-muscular coordination thus affecting the effective transmission of impulses in the affected region lead to impaired movements or immobility when the experience consistently occurs for a long time. It is the same encounter when people experience altered joint mechanics.

Factors That May Influence Soft Tissue Repair

The tissue repair is a complex process which occurs when there is an injury. Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence the process of tissue repairing for healing. Thus, when encountered with unfavorable conditions the healing process may take longer. The following factors shown in the image below are the major influencers of soft tissue repair.

Fig 4: factors affecting the reporting of soft tissue.

The above image reveals the factors affecting the repairing process of the damaged tissue. Some of them in abundance improve the pace of recovery while some slows-down the process and vise versa. For instance, the young people with their cells actively dividing will experience a faster tissue repair when damaged as compared to a senior person. Moreover, in the senior people, the epithelialization of the wound is slowers than the young thus a slow process of tissue repair (Krafts, 2010). Also, infections during the pre or postoperative period could affect the speed of healing as the infected tissues may continue to deteriorate through chemical and enzymes produced in the wounded part. Additionally, a balanced diet with protein, carbohydrate, vitamin, fats, and minerals are critical for building the natural immunity that assists in body repairing and fighting pathogens. The resistance created by healthy nutrition reduces the susceptibility of the body such as the skin from pathogens which may slow wound healing process through tissue repairing. On the other end, malnutrition compromises the development of the humoral and cell-mediated immunity which makes a person immunocompromised and unable to healing once inured or the process taking process slower than usual which would provide a chance for pathogens to invade the area and cause more damage. Cases of obesity are associated with increased percentage of fatty acid in the body which have insufficient blood vessels needed for transporting nutrients to injured parts and facilitate the repair of tissues. For this reason, blood supply is a critical element for the repairing process and people with normal weight have the advantage of supplying the nutrition needed to promote healing of the body tissues which have been injured. Furthermore, the extent of the injury also affects the repairing process. The greater the injury, the longer it will take to heal as more resources and associated activities are needed to effect the desired change. Also, drug therapy has an infected on the repairing process of injured tissues, for example, when using steroids the inflammatory responses and the formation of the collagen which are essential in the healing process occurs slowly and so will be the repairing process.

References

Edlich, R. F., Rodeheaver, G. T., Thacker, J. G., Winn, H. R., & Edgerton, M. T. (1977). Management of soft tissue injury. Clinics in plastic surgery, 4(2), 191-198.

Krafts, K. P. (2010). Tissue repair: The hidden drama. Organogenesis, 6(4), 225-233.

McKone, W. L. (1997). Tissue dysfunction. In Osteopathic Athletic Health Care (pp. 183-203). Springer, Boston, MA.