Ortho week: joint injuries
April 30, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
When most of us think of joint pain, we think of arthritis. But, there are more disorders that can cause joint pain or joint injury than just arthritis. Here are a few of them:
Sprains:
Most of us have either sprained an ankle or wrist at sometime or know someone who has. Did you know that a sprain can be more painful and take longer to heal than a break?
When you sprain a joint, you tear or stretch the ligament – a strong fibrous tissue that connects the bones at the joint. The sprain can be mild, moderate or severe.
If the sprain is mild, you’ve stretched the ligament or it has a slight tear in its fibers. If the sprain is moderate, you’ve torn the fibers in the ligament but the ligament isn’t totally torn or ruptured. If it’s severe, you’ve totally torn the ligament and it is very painful and swollen. This is the type of sprain that people have when they’re surprised to find out that they don’t have a fracture.
Dislocation:
Dislocations are most often caused by traumas or falls. Once you’ve dislocated a joint, it’s at a higher risk of dislocating again.
Osteonecrosis:
Osteo means bone and necrosis means death, osteonecrosis means death of bone cells. Osteonecrosis is also called avascular necrosis (AVN) or aseptic necrosis.
The blood flow to the bones in the joint areas is disturbed and the bone cells don’t get the nourishment they need to replace themselves. As a result, the bone tissue dies. The hips and knees are most commonly affected.
Bursitis:
You have small, fluid-filled sacs that cushion your joints against pressure and they lubricate the areas at well, between the bones and the tendons and muscles.
These sacs, called bursae, can become swollen and inflamed from overuse, causing pain, or bursitis.
Gout:
Gout is actually a form of arthritis but is given its own category. It occurs when uric acid builds up in the joints, causing swelling, redness, and severe pain.
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