Following my blog on how the body heals from invasive
surgery (http://www.injuredathlete.co.uk/how-do-you-heal-after-invasive-surgery/)
, I thought that it would be useful to do the same for musculoskeletal issues,
since these are common injuries for athletes. This is a really huge topic, and
I have struggled to get down the most relevant parts into something that I
think may be useful for injured athletes and coaches to understand what
questions they will ask of the medical team treating them. I have not covered
musculoskeletal diseases such as osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome,
tendonitis etc (many of which qualify as a disability under Social Security, if
the symptoms reach a certain level of severity), as these are much more complex
and long-lasting.
The challenge of most of musculoskeletal injuries is that
they generally involve tendons (which connect bones to muscles), ligaments
(which connect bone to bone) and/or cartilage (the soft, gel-like tissue that
provides cushioning and enables movement in joints). The white colour of these
tissue types give a clue to the fact that they do not have their own blood
supply. This means that they heal much more slowly than damaged skin or muscles
(which have their own blood supply). The surgical view is that they do not
regenerate and this is why often surgery is offered – mending torn tendons and ligaments
and replacing ruptured ones.
You need to play an
active role in healing musculoskeletal injuries
Whilst the fundamental phases of healing are the same as a
cut or muscle tear, there are a couple of key differences that you need to act
on:
- the pain signals through the healing phases are
very different and you need to actively manage your way through this – at times
managing the pain to protect the healing of the correct Range of Movement for
your body. It seems counter-intuitive not to listen to the pain in your body,
but this is the reason.
- you do need to actively rehabilitate the area
through each of the 3 stages, as it is unlikely to heal correctly without your
active focus and support: initially using the ‘POLICE’ protocol (see below) and
then with range of movement for that joint and then specific strengthening of
that area. When you are in a lot of pain, the constant health professional exhortations
of ‘keep moving’ may not seem to be very helpful, but this is the reason why.
- this is a long-term game, and you can expect to
need to focus on this for a period of 12 to 24 months. But for those who stay
the course and do the right things, the results do come.
Stage 1 of musculoskeletal
healing – Inflammation.
The swelling and redness may be hidden inside the joint, but
the symptoms will be such that no time day or night is pain-free and you may be
able to detect the heat coming from the joint, as well as the tenderness, pain
and loss of range of movement. If rest or a change of position gives relief,
then the healing has progressed to the repair stage. The inflammation stage
generally lasts 3-5 days, but can last a lot longer and if you re-injure or
re-inflame the same area, then you go back into this stage.
The point of this stage for the body is protecting the area
with swelling whilst it lays the foundations for the healing – clearing out the
damaged cells and starting to spin webs of protective tissue that bind the wound
together and stop the flow of liquids through the area.
This is the stage that you really need to apply the ‘POLICE’
protocol. This has replaced the old ‘RICE’ protocol (see the table below). So
that in the past, the recommendation was Rest, get an Ice pack on the area, use
Compression and Elevate the limb. All of these are designed to reduce the
inflammation and allow the body to get through this first stage. Interestingly,
anti-inflammatory medications do reduce the inflammation, but interfere with
the body’s natural management of inflammation – so as soon as you are out of
the immediate pain it is best to stop taking these in order to encourage the cellular-level
healing process to begin.
The new ‘POLICE’ protocol reflects the fact that the latest
medical studies suggest that some movement is good, even at these early stages.
So ‘Protect ‘the joint from the bad motion that has caused the injury (eg twisting),
with support, splinting or bracing as needed. Then work to get ‘Optimum Loading’
– moving the joint through the range of movement in every-day activities, but
not causing additional pain. This is why we see increasing numbers of people in
protective boots and slings, instead of full plaster-casts. The view on ‘Icing’
has also developed – and the guidance is that you should not apply it for
longer than 10 minutes and more than 3 times per day (as too much icing can
also damage the tissues).
P = Protect
OL = Optimum Loading |
R = Rest
|
|
I = Ice
|
I = Ice
|
|
C = Compression
|
C = Compression
|
|
E = Elevation
|
E = Elevation
|
Stage 2 of musculoskeletal healing – Repair or Proliferation.
During this stage the body develops the new tissue,
initially haphazardly and then starting to align these cells correctly. This
stage usually starts from a week after the injury and lasts 6-12 weeks or
longer. Pain usually comes and goes, according to the position or movement of
the body. If pain or fear of pain inhibits movement in this stage, then the pattern
with which the scar tissue is laid down can inhibit movement significantly and
reduce your body’s ability to function. Failure to stretch and move at this
time will lead to weak, but tight muscles that are intermittently painful and
vulnerable to re-injury. Therefore you really need to consistently (and gently)
put the body through a normal range of movement and the unhelpful cross-fibres
will be broken and the useful fibres that support the usual range of movement
will be strengthened. If this repair
stage does not lead to correct healing, the danger is that the body will start
to develop workarounds and compensating movements, which can lead to aches and
injuries elsewhere as the body moves into the third stage of healing with the
wrong fundamental structure in the injury area.
Stage 3 of musculoskeletal
healing – Remodelling or Maturation.
In this stage the tissues build their flexibility and
strength, and this lasts at least 6 months and can be two years or more. Even
now, you may get some pain with certain movements (especially when you take the
movement to the end-zones of the Range of Movement – which you do need to do),
or you may be pain-free. This is why usually from around 4-12 weeks after injury
(depending on the injury: follow your surgeon’s or physio’s advice), you should
be adding in some strength-based training – starting very gently and slowly
building up to 3 sets of 10 repetitions (working to failure), with a day or two
of rest between sessions for the body to recover and rebuild (in line with the
progressive overload model of development) and obviously backing off if the
level of pain increases.
If you do not keep rehabbing the area, there is a very strong
probability of significantly reinjuring it because it is so far below strength.
This is very challenging, as it is usually just one or two exercises that you
need to do over and over again, gently progressing them. And before you have
done this, it may well be too premature to go back to a repetitive loading
activity like running, or even cycling. Many people do not have the patience to
do this progressive strengthening over the period of 12-24 months that it takes,
and this is one of the reasons why re-injury is common. Even with the correct
rehab, the area often stays 20% weaker than before the injury. Hence you will need to keep looking at your
form to check that there are not compensation behaviours that will cause other
injuries, and look at your activities to check that you are giving it the
protection that it needs.
Why pain makes this
all so much harder
The challenge for many people in chronic pain* is that the
correct level of managing the inflammation, mobilising the joint to get the range
of movement and strength building across the 3 phases is hard to do. The pain
makes them avoid exercise and stretching required for correct healing. At times
the level of incorrect healing in stage 2 can need significant manipulation
(even under general anaesthetic) to break up the adhesion and re-stimulate
inflammation. You then effectively start back at phase 1 of healing, and need
to ensure that stretching (for Range of Movement) and exercise (to stimulate the
limited blood supply to the area) then begin the process of rehabilitation.
As well as medications, guided corticosteroid injections into the area are common and can bring very significant short-term relief. You need to make the decision on these with your Orthopaedic Consultant. The only anecdote that I would pass on is one where an athlete had a number of injections into the tendon over a 2-year period, and the tendon did rupture. One of the questions was whether the perforations from the multiple injections had played a role.
* The definition of chronic pain varies, but it is long-term
pain and most seem to define it as having lasted for over 3 months or over 6
months. I think that the key definition is having been in pain for that length
of time, you get to the stage where you adapt your physical, mental and
emotional approaches to life (whether consciously or unconsciously) as a
consequence of the pain. As well as these external impacts on your life, the
internal impacts of your body swimming in the chemicals associated with
inflammation and the nerve pain patterns can also have significant impacts on
your healing.
