What are Sprains, Strains, and Tendonitis?
This is a category of musculoskeletal injuries that covers a very wide variety of body regions, conditions, and severity. They are categorized together on this website because they do share a lot of similarities – mainly in the sense that physical therapy is the appropriate place for conservative care. The information that follows is very general and just an overview – please call your physician or our office to schedule an appointment for specific guidance.
What is a Sprain?
Sprains are injuries to a ligament. The most ubiquitous example is likely the old ankle sprain, or “rolled ankle”. This happens when your ankle rolls inward and you injure the ligaments that connect that lateral part of your ankle joint. This injury can vary in severity and disability, but is a good example of a traditional sprain. You have ligaments all over your body, and can also sustain a sprain to thumbs, elbow, knees, or your spine.
What is a Strain?
Strains are injuries to muscle or tendon. A common example of a strain would be a hamstring injury, during a bout of sprinting. This often is called a “pulled hamstring”. Again, the severity of the injury can vary from very minor to a much more serious tear. You can strain almost any muscle/tendon in your body if the forces placed upon it are too great for its capacity at that moment.
What is Tendonitis?
Tendonitis by definition means, “inflammation to a tendon”. This term has been replaced by tendinopathy in the medical community because the “inflammatory” phase is short, but the painful phase is long. So the term tendinopathy is more appropriate. Common areas for tendinopathy may be tennis elbow, rotator cuff, Achilles tendon, or the knee – just to name a few. As you can see, this is just a very general overview, please contact us for specific information.
