Mechanism of Injury

One of the pieces of information I find so useful in assessing and treating my patients is THE MECHANISM OF INJURY. This is basically knowing what happened in as much detail as possible at the time of symptom onset or injury.

The Benefits

This information allows you to build up a picture of any incident which then gives clues as to the specifics of injury. For example what structures are likely to have been affected, in what order and to what degree. Having such information affords you much deeper insight into a patient's condition and allows you to answer common questions as to the likely length of recovery time.

Working in professinal sport and being pitchside gives you massive advantages in this area. You can see it all happen right in front of you and be on the scene almost immediately. This has obvious advantages over being told the details by the patient or even a third party.

The Details

Things that you are very interested in include the velocity or speed of the incident; whether there was a collision; whether the forces were rotary or involving a twisting mechanism; at what point the pain began; whether there was a stretch element; whether something gave way and what the player's response was immediately after the incident.

Add this detail to the deep knowledge of the individual involved that you get when you work with them everyday and you are in an excellent position to give a strong and definitive diagnosis as well as a decent prognosis.

This part of being a physical therapist is one that I really enjoy and it is certainly the case for me that the beauty is in the detail and it is an excellent example of knowledge being power.