Leg Injuries – A Guide
Leg injuries are something most people face at some point in their lives. The most common leg injuries are a result of sport injuries, falls or accidents.
Our simple guide to leg injuries tells you everything you want to know about leg injury symptoms, including how wearing compression hosiery can help you overcome all kinds of leg injury.
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The most common leg injuries are due to sports injuries. Shin splints and muscle, ligament and tendon strains frequently affect professional and amateur athletes alike. Accidents at home and at work, together with falls in bad weather or on uneven surfaces, are also common causes of leg injury. The most common symptoms of leg injury include:
- Pain, redness, swelling and stiffness due to damage to your leg tissues
- Loss of normal movement to some degree depending on the severity of the injury
- Problems with walking and ordinary daily activities
- Complete immobility through a serious spinal cord injury
- Disruption to your activity, exercise and training
How to treat Leg Injuries
Most leg injuries will benefit through a combination of treatments: medical attention and compression support. Medical attention: More serious leg injuries will need treatment such as stitches, casts or splints. Even surgery may be necessary for some traumatic injuries. Sports injuries often need careful assessment and then weeks of physiotherapy. Compression support: Many people find compression support very helpful for lower leg injuries. This provides compression to the calf muscles, reducing fluid build-up from inflammation and helping to reduce pain. Recent research shows that compression stockings can help after more serious injury. Compression hosiery that can help reduce aching and swelling. One report concluded that graduated compression stockings with a pressure of 21 mm/Hg were able to prevent distension of leg veins in patients.What causes Leg Injuries?
Leg injuries come in many different forms and degrees of seriousness. The major causes of leg injury are: Sports training: Even with warm up routines, every athlete is prone to sports injuries. The risk increases depending on the intensity and frequency of training. Falls: Serious falls can cause spinal cord injury but even a minor fall can lead to a muscle strain or joint damage. You don’t have to fall very far – just go over on your ankle from a small step and you can severely sprain or even break your ankle. Accidents: This includes an almost endless list including car accidents, accidents at work and accidents at home.Top tips to protect Leg Injuries
In most cases, particularly with sports injuries, leg injuries are temporary. To protect the injury and prevent it from getting any worse, there are a number of things you should bear in mind:- Stay as active as possible, doing any exercises recommended
- Compress the area of the injury to aid healing – wearing compression hosiery is an easy and effective way to do this
- Rest with your leg raised and iced
- Avoid putting added strain on your injured leg are all important
- Take a break from vigorous exercise – avoiding ‘working through the pain’ as this can cause further damage to muscles, ligaments and tendons