Aruba Sports Medicine

Hamstring Injury

Hamstring Injury

 

A hamstring injury is a strain or tear to the tendons or large muscles at the back of the thigh.

It’s a common injury in athletes and can occur in different severities. The 3 grades of hamstring injury are:

grade 1 – a mild muscle pull or straingrade

grade 2 – a partial muscle tear

grade 3 – a complete muscle tear

Natasha Barnes - Hamstring Injuries in Climbers - TrainingBeta

The length of time it takes to recover from a hamstring strain or tear will depend on how severe the injury is.

A minor muscle pull or strain (grade 1) may take a few days to heal, whereas it could take weeks or months to recover from a muscle tear (grade 2 or 3).

The hamstrings are tendons (strong bands of tissue) at the back of the thighs that attach the large thigh muscle to the bone.

The term “hamstring” also refers to the group of 3 muscles that run along the back of your thigh, from your hip to just below your knee.

The hamstring muscles aren’t used much while standing or walking, but they’re very active during activities that involve bending the knee, such as running, jumping and climbing.

Hamstring Muscle Tendinopathy | Orthopedics Sports Medicine

What causes hamstring injuries?

A hamstring injury can occur if any of the tendons or muscles are stretched beyond their limit.

They often occur during sudden, explosive movements, such as sprinting, lunging or jumping. But they can also occur more gradually, or during slower movements that overstretch your hamstring.

Recurring injury is common in athletes and sportsmen, as you’re more likely to injure your hamstring if you’ve injured it before.

Regularly doing stretching and strengthening exercises, and warming up before exercise, may help reduce the risk of injuring your hamstring.

How do I know if I’ve injured my hamstring?

Mild hamstring strains (grade 1) will usually cause sudden pain and tenderness the back of your thigh. It may be painful to move your leg, but the strength of the muscle shouldn’t be affected.

Partial hamstring tears (grade 2) are usually more painful and tender. There may also be some swelling and bruising at the back of your thigh and you may have lost some strength in your leg.

Severe hamstring tears (grade 3) will usually be very painful, tender, swollen and bruised. There may have been a “popping” sensation at the time of the injury and you’ll be unable to use the affected leg.

Rest and recovery

Recovering from a hamstring injury may take days, weeks or months, depending on how severe the strain or tear is.

A completely torn hamstring (grade 3) may take several months to heal and you’ll be unable to resume training or play sport during this time.

Initial treatment

During the first 2 or 3 days, you should care for your injury using RICE therapy:

Rest – keep your leg as still as you possibly can and avoid physical activity. Your GP may recommend using crutches in more severe cases.

Ice – apply cold packs (a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel will also work) to your hamstring for up to 20 minutes every 2 to 3 hours during the day. Don’t apply ice directly to your skin.

Compression – compress or bandage the thigh to limit any swelling and movement that could cause further damage. You can use a simple elastic bandage or elasticated tubular bandage available from a pharmacy.

 Elevation – keep your leg raised and supported on a pillow as much as possible, to help reduce any swelling.

Regular painkillers, such as paracetamol or a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) cream or gel, may also help relieve the pain.

Short-term use of oral NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen tablets, can also help reduce swelling and inflammation. However, these aren’t suitable for everyone. Check the leaflet that comes with your medication to see if you can take it.

Gentle exercises and stretches

Returning to strenuous exercise too quickly could make your injury worse, but avoiding exercise for too long can cause your hamstring muscles to shrink and scar tissue to form around the tear.

To avoid this, you should start doing gentle hamstring stretches after a few days, when the pain has started to subside.

This should be followed by a programme of gentle exercise, such as walking and cycling, and hamstring strengthening exercises.

 

 

Therapeutic ultrasound

 

Therapeutic ultrasound is used to treat generally muscle, joint or tendon injuries; It works through the emission of sound waves generated by means of a transducer, promoting the release of heat towards the affected area and the stimulation of blood flow, achieving the reduction of pain and inflammation, this type of treatment is very effective, not it causes no pain or has any side effects.

General indications of therapeutic ultrasound.

Utility of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound in Sports Medicine

Nowadays, musculoskeletal ultrasound has become a necessary and very useful tool for the diagnosis and prognosis of sports injuries, its use is increasingly established in the world of sports and has multiple advantages over other modalities.

It is fast, cheap and, in addition, it allows interaction with the patient, which has led to an exponential growth in their employment.

Therefore, in the field of Sports Medicine and Traumatology, in the event of an injury it is necessary to reach an exact diagnosis in the shortest possible time, to be able to establish an immediate treatment, which allows to shorten the recovery. This is where ultrasound is a basic tool for the study of all injuries, which limit the athlete’s performance so much. In addition, ultrasound allows a rigorous and detailed evolutionary control to be carried out, assessing the day-to-day of the injury.

Among the many advantages that this diagnostic technique provides over other study techniques, especially in the assessment of tissues such as muscle, ligament and tendon, the following should be noted:

– It allows dynamic studies to be carried out, which accurately determine the diagnosis of small lesions, which may go unnoticed, when the structures remain at rest. In the case of complex joint unions such as the scapulo-humeral joint, from dynamic maneuvers, the existence of entrapment syndromes can be demonstrated.

– It allows the carrying out of repeated studies that facilitate an evolutionary control in the day-to-day of the injured athlete. As there are no contraindications, this rapid technique allows a comparative examination with the healthy side to determine the extent and characteristics of the lesion area.

– At present, the use of compact equipment facilitates the use of this technique in the field, thanks to the ease of application, safety, its non-radiant character and its accessibility.

– New technological advances such as three-dimensional study, elastography, high-resolution Doppler or Doppler quantification, are making it possible to complete the examination of the musculoskeletal lesion so that small lesions are now easily diagnosed.

On the other hand, some drawbacks of ultrasound must be considered in comparison with other diagnostic techniques, such as the limited independence of the explorer, interobservative variability, poor visualization of the bone, and intra-articular structures as well as that of certain muscles.

Ecografía - Ángel Troncoso Fisioterapia Ecografía musculoesquelética: ¿es una herramienta válida en el razonamiento clínico en fisioterapia?

Usefulness of Ultrasound in injuries that appear as a result of sports activity :

  • Epicondylitis or “tennis elbow”
  • Epitrocleitis or “golfer’s elbow”
  • Painful shoulder from rotator cuff tendon injuries, bursitis, etc.
  • Biceps brachii tendinitis
  • Wrist sprain
  • Finger tendonitis
  • Painful hip from injury to the adductors or pubalgia
  • Bruising on the thigh from contusions or ruptured rectum
  • Hamstring muscle rupture with posterior thigh pain
  • Knee sprain with involvement of lateral ligaments
  • Quadriceps or patellar tendinopathy (“jumper’s knee”)
  • “Goose foot” tendinopathy (pain on the inside of the knee)
  • Tennis leg
  • Ankle sprains or strains
  • Achilles tendon tendinopathies
  • Plantar fasciitis or pain in the sole of the foot
  • Tears or strains of the rectus abdominis

 

Laser Therapy

What are the effects of using lasers?

The use of laser in physiotherapy, if it has these characteristics, increases metabolic activity by acting on the mitochondria, which can reduce healing times. In addition, it produces an increase in vasodilation, improves lymphatic drainage, reduces inflammation and increases the pain threshold. Photomechanical stimulation inhibits pain sensation and provides immediate relief.

Toral points out that laser therapy “has no absolute contraindications.” Laser therapy is painless, and although it increases the temperature of the treated area, it is not invasive. The laser acts on the cell membrane generating a photochemical effect, which facilitates tissue regeneration, pain reduction and remodeling of inflammatory effects.

All these characteristics allow to obtain a series of effects that were not achieved with the low-power laser.

  • The biostimulant effect accelerates the production of fibroblasts with the consequent production of collagen in order to rebalance the extracellular matrix and to remodel the tissues. This is only achieved by long pulse continuous or pulsed emission.
  • The anti-inflammatory effect is the result of biological stimulation of the tissues, which triggers vasodilation.
  • Stimulation also produces a neoangiogenesis phenomenon that has an anti- edema effect .
  • High-powered laser therapy also has relaxation effects by modulating the release of oxygen.
  • Finally, the analgesic effect allows to reduce pain without collateral effects, optimizing the interaction with the peripheral nervous system.

 

What can laser be used for in physiotherapy?

With these functionalities, the laser covers a wide spectrum of applications.

  • In traumatology it is used for post-trauma recovery , because it allows the possibility of modeling the emission according to the desired physiological effect.
  • In pain therapy, because it is capable of generating a rapid decrease in joint and muscle pain through the stochastic emission patented by Mectronic, which acts on the peripheral nervous system.
  • In the prevention of accidents, because if they undergo laser therapy treatments before the sporting event, the musculoskeletal structures will be vascularized and perfectly oxygenated, reducing the risk of micro-injuries.
  • To speed up recovery , because the multi-modal emission allows the therapy to be personalized according to the need.
  • To quickly eliminate edema, because it allows you to customize the therapy according to the somatic characteristics of the patient and their pathological state.
  • To heal muscle injuries, because it allows the metabolic activation of all microbiological processes that return the intracellular and extracellular balance to the cell, in order to rapidly rebuild muscle tissue.
  • To treat acute pathologies, because it modulates, in the water phase of the pathology, the inflammatory effects through a stimulating action of the deep tissues.
  • To treat tendinopathies, because it exerts a biostimulant action and rebalances the correct balance of muscle forces through deep and complete oxygenation of the muscle fasciae.
  • As a physiological accelerator , because it allows the correct biostimulant therapy to be applied by defining the energy dose and the mode of emission depending on the pathological condition of the patient.

Most common applications

  • Deep tissue penetration with power up to 12 W in continuous mode
  • Pulsating mode for immediate pain relief
  • Painful shoulder
  • Hip arthrosis
  • Epicondylitis
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Patellar tendonitis
  • Lumbar pain
  • Achilles tendonitis
  • Back pain

 

Physical exercise all ages

CEMEDAR Center for Sports Medicine in Aruba

Aruba, despite being a small island, has a sports medical center, which offers its services to all practitioners of physical activity and sports, has high-tech equipment and highly experienced professionals who offer their services in various branches of sports medicine, athletes and practitioners of physical activity throughout the island.

Sports medicine is the medical specialty that studies the effects of competitive exercise and physical activity in general, on the human body, focusing on the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of diseases and injuries that occur in practitioners, also in the evaluation of the physical conditions and performance of the athletes
Every day it has a greater role in both high performance and recreational sports, offering scientific support for the achievement of high results in elite athletes, and at a recreational level promoting the level of health and well-being of the population, offering care and guidance so that The practice of sport is always a means to raise the standard of living and the health of the population, at all ages, starting from an early age to the elderly.
The main tasks of sports medicine are:
• Preventive mission.
• Guiding mission.
• Healing mission.

Ejercicio Fisico todas las edades

Services offered:

  • Sports Traumatology
  • Sports medicine
  • Physiotherapy
  • Sports Psychology
  • Sports Massage
  • Athlete Functional Assessment

 

The services offered by the Arubano CEMEDAR sports medical center are available to the entire population of Aruba, both high-performance athletes and the general population, we have professionals in medicine and sports sciences willing to offer their services for well-being of the entire population, the practice of physical exercise has in CEMEDAR a center of high scientific level that everyone can use and benefit from its services.

Core Concept and Assessment Training

The core is based on a set of clinical biomechanical osteoarticular muscle groups, especially the central part of the body, including dorsal lumbar rachis, pelvis, and hips, which allows us stability in the spine coordinated by the motor control system; when it is subjected to external and internal forces for its training it is of useful importance since the trunk and the extremities participate

The assessment of the Core applies different kinematic and dynamometric techniques, it is important to highlight that its operation depends on maximum strength, resistance strength, intra and intermuscular coordination, motor control, and proprioceptive control.

The objective is to prevent lumbopelvic injuries, optimization of performance in order to improve the stability of the athlete with precision and agility, the ideal is to perform exercises that exercise the flexors, extensors, lateralizers and rotators, the most effective safe are sample dog, bug Dead and planks, taking into account the frequency, intensity and equal volume through the iliolumbar proprioceptive exercise program and waist dissociation, the upper and lower limbs are necessary for coordination of the Core stability of the same in the sports field.

Pointer Dead bugIron

Bibliography

Borghuis, J; Hof, A and Lemmink, K. (2008) The importance of sensory motor control in provide stability core stability. Sports medicine, 38, 11, 893-916.

McGill SM (2007) Low back disorders: evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation, 2nd.ed. champaing: Human Kinetic.

Van Dieen, JH; Luger, T and Van der Eb, J. (2012) Effects of fatigue on trunk stability in elite gymnasts. Eur J Appl Physiol. 112 (4): 1307–13 .:

Vera-García, FJ; Elvira, JL; Brown, SH and McGill, SM. (2007) Effects of abdominal stabilization maneuvers on the control of spine motion and stability against sudden trunk perturbations. J Electromyogr Kinesiol. 17 (5): 556–67

Vera-García, FJ; Barbado, D; Moreno-Pérez, V; Hernández-Sánchez, S; Juan-Recio, C and Elvira, JLL. (2015) Core stability: Evaluation and training criteria. Rev Andal Med Sport, 8 (2): 79-85.