First aid for sprains and sprains

The skills of providing emergency medical services often help to save a person's life. After all, doctors can not always come instantly. Therefore, we suggest that you study the first aid for stretching ligaments of the joint, bruises, dislocations and fractures. If you study these simple actions, then with mild forms of trauma you can manage on your own.

What is a dislocation, sprain, bruise and fracture?

Stretching of the ligaments is a damage to the soft tissues of the ligaments or those that are around the joint. As a rule, the blood vessels adjacent to the rupture site also suffer. To earn stretching, it is enough just to stumble, slip, exaggerate the physical load.

Dislocation is the result of the loss of bone from its place ("nest"). In other words, the joint bones are displaced. For example, as a result of heavy physical exertion or some kind of body movement. Most often, parts of the body such as the leg, hand, finger and shoulder are susceptible to dislocation.

A bruise is damage to tissues (sometimes organs) without disturbing their structure. With light bruises, skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscles and periosteum are injured. During severe bruises, internal organs can be damaged and even tissue necrosis may occur.

Fracture is a violation of the integrity of the bone as a result of severe damage. There are fractures open, when adjacent tissues are injured, skin and wound is formed, and closed.

Inexperienced people can confuse dislocation with a closed fracture. The main distinguishing feature of the latter is that the pain does not pass even after a while, and the injured place begins to swell and change color to dark blue.

Signs and Symptoms

Both these injuries, dislocation and sprain, are often confused with fractures, since the kakoni have similar symptoms:

• Pain in or around the injury site;
• Swelling (swelling, bruising);
• Full or partial inability to carry out movements;
• Deformity of limb or body part (typical for open and closed fractures, dislocations);
• Any discoloration (discoloration, bruising, blue).

What do I need to provide first aid?

First aid for sprains and sprains is not possible without some materials:

• Elastic bandage or what can replace it for the near future (for example, a rag, clothes, a usual gauze bandage, a towel, a bedclothes, etc.);
• scissors;
• A tire that can be replaced by any flat solid object (for example, a stick).

First aid

The first pre-medical care for stretching ligaments and other injuries is to minimize further damage to the damaged area and not to provoke impairment.

If a person is not familiar with the rules of first aid, then it is better not to take any action, since even one wrong move can lead to serious consequences.

Sprain

First aid in stretching and rupturing of ligaments:

1. Tightly bandage the damaged limb. But do not disturb the blood circulation. To control this, it is best to leave the finger tips unbent, since their color will signal a blood circulation disorder.
2. Reduce the functionality of the damaged limb by placing it in the bandage.
3. Deliver the victim to a medical facility where he must be given an X-ray. This is necessary in order to exclude fractures and confirm or disprove the rupture of ligaments.

In severe cases of sprain or laceration, a plaster bandage is required. At home, it is not possible to do this, so medical intervention is simply necessary.

With simple stretches of ligaments, the injured person should stop playing sports for a while, in particular, run and ride a bicycle. And to reduce the load on the limb with stretched ligaments, use special auxiliaries:

• Orthopedic insoles, if the foot is damaged;
• Bandages if the hand is injured;
• If the finger is damaged.

First time, bed rest is desirable.

Contusions

First aid for bruises and sprains of ligaments is somewhat different and has the following sequence of actions:

1. If the injury is accompanied not only by a bruise, but also by a graze, then the damaged area must be disinfected with the help of green, iodine or hydrogen peroxide.
2. To the bruised place for twenty minutes a packet of ice is applied.
3. A tight pressure bandage is applied.

For three days to the bruised place you can apply cold, after which it is replaced with a warm water bottle. For an early healing, the injured area can be lubricated with special ointments and gels from bruises.

In most cases, medical care is not required. But if after a bruise the victim is dizzy, pre-fainting, or if the injury was severe and caused in the abdomen, head, back, then the help of medical personnel is simply necessary, since there is a risk of internal bleeding.

Also, in order to determine whether a professional medical intervention is necessary, it is not recommended to give any painkillers to the victim in the first day. Since they can hide the symptoms of a serious injury, which was difficult to recognize at first.

Dislocations

First aid for dislocations:

1. The dislocated part of the body should be fixed with a tire.
2. Place a cold on the site of the dislocation.
3. Try to immobilize the dislocated limb as much as possible. For example, if the arm or shoulder is damaged, then make a bandage through a healthy shoulder.
4. Take the victim to a medical facility.

If you do not have medical education and you have not been given first aid courses, then do not try to put a dislocated limb in place. There is a chance that the arm, leg or finger will not fit correctly, and the pain caused is too great to justify the errors.

First time is desirable to comply with bed rest.

Open fractures

The first aid for fractures and sprains of ligaments is given differently. This is especially true for open fractures.

The procedure during the first medical aid with open fractures :

1. It is necessary to remove tweezers of bone and other possible objects from the wound with tweezers.
2. The skin around the lesion is treated with a 5% iodine solution or hydrogen peroxide.
3. A dressing is applied from a sterile bandage.
4. The damaged place is fixed by means of a tire, under which it is necessary to put a cotton-gauze pillow or something soft.

The victim after the first aid must urgently be sent to a medical institution, where the professionals will make all the necessary manipulations.

Closed fractures

Help with closed fractures is similar to first aid in stretching ligaments:

1. The damaged area is sufficiently tightly bandaged.
2. If a wounded limb fractures, then it must be placed in a bandage or fixed.

After that, the injured person is taken to a medical institution where he is X-rayed and impose a plaster bandage.

How correctly to apply a bandage?

The first help in stretching ligaments and other injuries is mainly to properly apply a bandage to the damaged area.

Of course, depending on the type of injury (simple bruise, dislocation, sprain of the joints, fractures, etc.), dressings may differ from each other. But the principle of their overlap remains the same:

1. A person who provides first aid should have clean hands. Ideally, they need to be washed with soap, if there is no such possibility or you need to act immediately, then it is enough to treat them with some kind of antiseptic (sprays, napkins).
2. If the injured place with an abrasion or there is an open fracture, then the area around the bruise (fracture) must be treated with hydrogen peroxide, iodine or zelenok. In extreme cases, alcohol.
3. The victim is placed in a convenient position with a convenient approach to the injured place.
4. Bandage in a spiral from the bottom up. For example, if the arm or leg is damaged, then the bandage is guided from the fingers to the trunk.
5. The first few turns of the bandage are fixing, that is, it is tightly wrapped around the limb or body, and placed at some distance from the damage.
6. Each new layer of bandage should cover the previous one by one third.
7. The last turn of the bandage is the same as the first - fastening and located over the injured area.

For greater reliability, you can cut the end of the bandage into two parts, wrap them around the damaged area and tie it.

First Aid Notes

The first medical care for stretching ligaments and other injuries will be rendered incorrect if the person who provides it does not follow the existing notes.

Their list includes the following:

• Do not attempt to insert a fracture or dislocation into place yourself - this can lead to further injury.
• People without medical education find it difficult to determine the nature of the trauma - fracture, dislocation or stretching. If in doubt, always treat injuries as a fracture.
• In case of a fracture of the clavicle, keep the arm slightly apart from the injured person by making a sling.
• If you suspect a dislocation of the joint, then give the affected area a rest and attach a packet of ice to it.

After injuries, the victim may occasionally experience minor discomforts in the traumatized area (for example, pulling pains that appear with the weather changing from sunny to rain). But such a result is possible with almost 100% probability, if the first aid in sprains, sprains, bruises and fractures was not correctly provided. Therefore, this is another motivation to comply with all the points from the above notes.

The most important thing is that first aid for sprains, sprains, bruises and other injuries should be provided by a person who does not succumb to panic and thinks sensibly. In most cases, the success of the healing of damaged areas depends on this.