Classify common sports injuries as acute or chronic and describe the causes and signs of soft-tissue and hard-tissue injuries

What this dot point is asking

SEAB wants you to classify common sports injuries as acute or chronic and to describe the causes and signs of soft-tissue and hard-tissue injuries. The central idea is that injuries fall into recognisable types by how they happen and what tissue they affect, and knowing the type guides how to prevent and treat them.

The answer

Acute and chronic injuries

Injuries are classed by how they arise.

• Acute injuries happen suddenly, from a single incident such as a fall, a collision or an awkward landing. Examples include a sprained ankle, a torn muscle and a fracture.
• Chronic injuries develop gradually over time, usually from overuse or repeated stress without enough recovery. Examples include tennis elbow, shin splints and stress fractures.

Soft-tissue injuries

Soft-tissue injuries affect the soft tissues, the muscles, tendons and ligaments, rather than bone.

• A sprain is damage to a ligament (which joins bone to bone), caused by overstretching or tearing it, for example twisting the ankle.
• A strain is damage to a muscle or tendon, caused by overstretching or tearing it, for example pulling a hamstring while sprinting.

Signs of a soft-tissue injury include pain, swelling, bruising, tenderness and reduced range of movement.

Hard-tissue injuries

Hard-tissue injuries affect the bones and joints.

• A fracture is a break or crack in a bone, from a strong force (or, as a stress fracture, from repeated overuse).
• A dislocation is when a bone is forced out of its normal position at a joint.

Signs include severe pain, swelling, deformity (the limb or joint looks wrong), and an inability to move or bear weight.

Examples in context

Example 1. A footballer's hamstring "pull". Sprinting for the ball, the player feels a sudden sharp pain at the back of the thigh: an acute, soft-tissue injury, specifically a strain (a torn muscle). The sudden onset makes it acute, and the muscle damage makes it a strain rather than a sprain.

Example 2. A runner's shin splints. Weeks of high-mileage running on hard surfaces bring on a gradual ache along the shin: a chronic, overuse injury. Unlike the hamstring strain, there is no single moment of injury, which is what makes it chronic and points to training load as the cause.

Try this

• Cue. Classify a stress fracture as acute or chronic and explain why. (Chronic, because it develops gradually from repeated overuse rather than a single incident.)

• Cue. State the difference between a sprain and a strain. (A sprain damages a ligament, joining bone to bone; a strain damages a muscle or tendon.)

• Cue. List three signs that suggest a hard-tissue injury rather than a soft-tissue one. (Visible deformity, inability to move or bear weight, and severe pain, especially with an obvious break or joint out of place.)