RMT Oakville

Soft Tissue Injury

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What is new in our massage therapy clinic in Oakville?

Today we discuss what a soft tissue injury is:

  1. Severity of the injury
  2. Musculoskeletal structures that are involved
  3. Stage of inflammation
  4. Recovery time.

When a client has experienced a trauma it is important that therapist consider the severity of the injury, identify all the musculoskeletal structures that are involved, identify the stage of inflammation and recovery of the involved tissues.

For all of that we as therapist we must perform orthopaedic and palpation assessment, so we can identify all the impairment and functional limitations present. We can then determine for which of the findings massage therapy is appropriate.

But before we talk about the treatment let’s have a look on some definitions-

  • Contusion – A crushing injury from a direct blow that results in capillary rupture.
  • Strain- Trauma to a muscle and/or its tendon from overstretching or violent contraction, and usually will happen with sprain.
  • Sprain- Overstretching, partial tearing or complete tearing of a ligament (or joint capsule) due to trauma.
  • Repetitive Strain Injury aka overuse- Repeated, submaximal overload and/or friction wear to a muscle or tendon resulting in inflammation and pain.
  • Dislocation- An injury to a joint in which the articulating surfaces are no longer in contact.
  • Avulsion- Is a fracture that occurs as the result of the pulling of soft tissue attached to the bone from trauma.
  • Subluxation- An incomplete disruption of boney continuity that often involves soft tissue injury.
  • Dislocations and Subluxation are often will happen along with strain type injury.

What may result from a trauma-?

Dysfunction, joint dysfunction, adhesion, contracture, spasm, muscle weakness and even myofascial compartment syndrome.

Follow our blogs at our massage therapy clinic in Oakville, next blog will be about Inflammation and tissue healing.

How to use the heating compress

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A heating compress can be described as a “cold double compress” because the cold cloth is covered with a dry one to preserve the heat that is being drawn from the body into the underlying cloth. The dry cloth keeps the warmed air trapped inside.

Heating compress is best applied around the throat, around joints, to calf muscles, and on the abdomen (to address insomnia and constipation). The primary goal is to relieve congestion, although there is often a sedative/relaxation effect in the treated tissues, for example –

  • On the neck to treat sore throats and laryngitis.
  • For earaches, a similar process can be followed, wrapping a cloth under the chin to cover the ears and securing it with a pin or knot on the top of the head.

The compress is left on until it feels warm (up to 30 minutes). To achieve a stronger effect you may decide to re-apply cold, after it warms again the compress is left on for half an hour or up to 2 hours or overnight in home set up.

In additional, if the cloth is too wet the body may work too hard to heat the area up, possibly leading to a negative reaction, or if the area that is being treated does not warm up, this is considered a negative reaction.