Home > Blog > Physiotherapy > Hand Therapy > Conditions We Treat > Ligament Sprain Physiotherapy And Hand Therapy

Ligament Sprain Physiotherapy And Hand Therapy

Soft tissue injuries refer to injuries to non-bony tissues of our body, namely the:

• muscles
• tendons
• ligaments
• nerves
• skin

Fortunately, our specialist physiotherapists and rehab therapists can assess and provide specific diagnosis to determine what structure(s) are damaged or involved plus how severe the condition is.

That's why we spend more time on the initial / first session to assess more and once we've made the conclusive medical diagnosis, we will then customize a customized physiotherapy and hand therapy treatment plan that is tailored to you and provide specific treatment approaches.

Symptoms

So our ligaments get strained when traumatic stress is placed on the joint which can either sprain (micro / mini tears) or in worse case scenarios, you can completely tear the ligament (means that it's a 100% full rupture).

The symptoms depends entirely on the level of the damage but the most common symptoms include

1. pain
2. swelling
3. bruising
   
4. decreased movement
5. decreased joint stability
6. decreased strength
   

In some cases, patients may also have fractures (also known as avulsion fractures) - which will require an X-ray imaging to confirm.

If you do have an avulsion fracture, we may have to adjust and customize your physiotherapy or hand therapy rehabilitation further to factor in fracture rehabilitation.

Treatment

Initial / Early Stage:

• Protect the injury site and do not cause additional injuries
• Ice + Compression + Elevation to decrease the bruising and swelling, which will decrease pain experience and secondary complications due to swelling (such as stiffness etc).
  
  Please note that ice should be applied for not more than 20 minutes, and wrap ice in plastic bag which is then wrapped in towel (never apply ice directly because that'd cause superficial level cooling and possibly also cause iceburn)
  
  
• Load it optimally whilst protecting it (not loading it sufficiently causes it to heal suboptimally) typically protected or very gentle active range of motion exercises

Phoenix Rehab specialist therapists may also apply a joint guard or taping to help protect your joint and decrease the swelling and at the same time, provide limitation to the movement to protect the injured structure.

Any injuries should be raised / elevated above the waist for as long as you can whilst you provide cold therapy to it, and this combination will work synergistically together to reduce your swelling and pain.

Physiotherapy and rehab interventions and treatments will then commence, and it will depend on the level and severity of your injury. Once you're ready, our specialist physiotherapists will start specific hands on rehab program that is tailored to your injury needs.

Where applicable, we may apply also:

• manual therapy
• ultrasound therapy and radio-frequency Indiba therapy to accelerate soft tissue healing
• exercise therapy
• and more
  

When the strained ligament is stronger, we will progressively increase the load and difficulty to improve joint stability, strength and stamina.

Our goal is to restore full strength and stability of the joint to 100%

Our Specialist Expertise

Our Specialist Physiotherapists are hand picked and we only with with specialists who have experience, expertise and passion for management of soft tissue, sports, and orthopedic injuries.

In the beginning, our specialist physiotherapists will first conduct a detailed clinical assessment to understand and determine the level and severity of your ligament sprain, and then customize a ligament rehab program that is tailored to you.

Then they will provide specific and expert treatments for your pain as well as prescribe very specific exercises to treat your injury, to reduce your risk and decrease recurrence of your pain.