SP69
Rehabilitation Of Musculoskeletal Injuries
Devamalar Selvi Naicker
Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang
Injuries to the musculoskeletal system can occur during sports , road traffic
accidents , industrial accidents or falls. It can involve either the bones or soft
tissues.This talk will focus on soft tissue injuries. Injuries to the musculoskeletal
system can be either acute or chronic depending on the cause. Acute injuries may
be the result of contact or non-contact injuries e.g ACL tears , hamstring strains.
Chronic injuries may be overuse injuries or inadequately rehabilitated acute injuries
which have become chronic.Trauma to the soft tissues causes tissue damage which
may lead to functional impairment. Rehabilitation is thus a process of enabling an
injured person to resume his activities at a level of function similar to his pre-injury
state as quickly and as safely as possible. If rehabilitation is inadequate the person
will be incapable of performing at pre-injury level or prone to re-injury of the same
area or predisposed to injuring another part of the body. Musculoskeletal
rehabilitation requires sound knowledge and understanding of the etiology and
pathology of injuries. The healing of soft tissues undergoes three stages starting with
inflammation immediately after the injury to repair and remodelling which can last six
months to a year after the injury. Rehabilitation programs must be based on the
cycle of the healing process. If not tailored according to the patient’s condition and
healing stage, it may further aggravate his injury and delay the recovery process.