What is Avulsion?: Types, Symptoms of Avulsion and Fracture
Avulsion is a commonly found injury among sportspersons. An avulsion is a kind of injury in which a body part is torn away from its normal position. This mainly affects the soft tissues. Avulsion can cause immense bleeding.
Avulsion is made possible by a violent force, which sometimes tears off the body part completely or partially. This is called an amputation.
Damaging soft tissues
With amputations, bleeding cannot be controlled easily because of the tissues around the injury, which are close to the injury site. Mostly the body part or the skin over the body part gets twisted or crushed with force and causes severe pain; this makes the blood flow form an unstoppable bleeding stream.
An avulsion is mainly possible in certain types of accidents and injuries that cause damage to the soft tissues and the body parts.
The injuries can happen to individuals at different levels, and these injuries need thorough medical check-ups and complete medical support in the form of health advice, accurate diagnosis, and suitable treatment. It is always better to consult the healthcare providers who offer the necessary help and advice, depending on individual requirements and the individual injury.
Serious muscle injuries
An avulsion can cause damage to the bones by fracturing part of bone in a serious manner during physical strain. Even muscular injuries can be caused, and these will have serious and long-term effect on the body. The muscle injuries need special care, and it is necessary to take care of these injuries with the utmost precautions.
The avulsion can also be possible due to muscular contraction, which can force the skin by holding the bone strongly. To prevent the possible muscle injury, one should take the help of neurology and muscle contraction.
Most of the trained athletes, with lots of practice, can very easily force the neurological inhibition of strength. They can produce lots of energy to force the capable output by breaking or avulsing a bone.
The avulsion fracture
According to medical science, a fracture is a type of crack or break in the bone. The avulsion fracture is a type of injury to the bone that mainly occurs close to where the tendon or ligament is present.
The fracture can happen when the tendon or ligament gets pulled away, and a small piece of bone pulls as well, coming out along with the tendon or ligament. Avulsion fractures happen mostly to the sportsmen who are often engaged in rough play.
The fractures affect bones mainly in the elbow, hip, knee, and ankle. The avulsion fracture can also injure other body parts, such as where the bone is primary, like the hand, fingers, shoulders, or wrists.
Symptoms of an avulsion fracture include:
- Unexpected but extreme pain in the fracture area
- Swelling
- Bruise marks
- Limited movement
- Extreme pain while moving the bone
- Temporary paralysis effect over joints
Under medical examination, the injured area is tested. Sometimes the doctors have to scan the area to find the actual cause of the pain. Most doctors prefer to take x-rays, which help in determining the cause of injury.
Treatment for Avulsion
The treatment varies depending on the position, size, and type of injury that affects the bone.
Ankle Avulsion Fracture
For an ankle avulsion fracture, you should rest and use ice on the area. Never press the ankle under your weight until it gets healed completely. Never allow the injury to swell, and always keep the ankle off the weight, and apply ice as much as needed. Use an ice pack or ice wrapped in towel, which help in healing the injured bone more quickly. It not only brings faster relief to the injured ankle, but it also helps to prevent further injuries.
Doctors may advise you to put a cast or boot over your ankle, which is highly effective in controlling the pain and healing the injury sooner. Never put weight over your injured ankle.
Finger Avulsion Fracture
The finger injury is most common among the sportsmen or the people who indulge in playing sports with balls. When the ball hits the tip of the finger, it hurts and the finger get injured with a hairline crack. The finger avulsion fracture is more complex and needs to be treated with care and caution.
The finger becomes painful and almost loses its mobility. To treat the finger injury, you need an expert who can treat the finger either by surgery or by applying pins around the bones of the finger. The treatment is purely based on the type and the severity of the injury.
Hip-bone Fracture
According to a study, one of the most commonly found injuries among young and old alike is the hip fracture or the pelvic injury. The doctor may advise you to keep the weight off the hip by using crutches. It is useful, and it can heal the injury in a relatively short span of time.
Also, use ice for a long period of time for better effect. Doctors may have to carry out a surgery in order to place the hip back in its original position. Also, surgeons may use screws and pins to set the position of the hip bone at proper position.
Useful tips for early recovery
In order to overcome painfulness and severity of the injury, one should try simple home remedies and useful tips. Sometimes, the injuries can be recovered easily with simple treatment options, and sometimes it takes longer to heal the injuries and make them feel better.
Risk Factor of Avulsion
The avulsion fractures occur mainly among the sportspersons who often get injured while playing or while practicing. It is commonly found among the young athletes who suffer while getting the growing bones injured while playing or while using the techniques wrongly.
Prevention Tips for Avulsion
It is advised that the sportsperson, and in general the people who exercise, should do warm-up exercises before starting the game or making any sudden moves. The warm-up exercises help the body to become more flexible, and they make the muscles stronger, which is highly helpful in preventing injuries in the form of fractures.
The process of avulsion, which is called a forced-type injury, is an injury that occurs to a body structure, which gets torn forcibly. It cannot only change the structure of the body, causing severe pain, but it sometimes permanently damages the part of body or part of bone completely.
It causes serious harm to the entire body, including subcutaneous tissues, parts of muscles, layers of skin, and the structures of the bones. Some of the very deadly injuries which can be caused include injuries to the eyelids, ear, and nose.
Types of avulsions
- Skin avulsions
- Ear avulsions
- Eyelid avulsions
- Nail avulsions
- Brachial plexus avulsions
- Tooth avulsions
- Periosteal avulsions
- Surgical avulsions
- Skin avulsions
The most common avulsion injury, skin avulsions, is mostly part of accidents that usually occur during collisions of motor vehicles. The severity of an avulsion can be vary. Skin flaps are a minor type of avulsion. The moderate type of avulsion is the amputation of a finger or other part of the body.
The superficial avulsions are the cases of getting the skin removed from a body part and exposing the deeper skin and tissue layers. The superficial avulsions can be the smaller type, where it can be repaired with the help of suturing. However, the major type of avulsion needs major skin grafts or reconstructive surgery.
The different types of avulsion injuries
Rock climbing avulsion
During rock climbing, the injury which is most common type is a flapper; it is a type of injury in which part of the skin gets torn off. It is known as a climber’s injury, which causes harm to the fingers. The injury is commonly seen among climbers who suffer from the fingers getting cut or otherwise injured.
Sports tapes are commonly used by the professional climbers; they keep the fingers safe from getting damaged and also allow good grip while climbing. Sometimes, the skin of the fingers gets damaged so much that the skin gets loose.
It requires special care and sometimes the use of super glue to help in getting the loose skin perfectly well.
Ear avulsions
The ear is particularly susceptible to avulsion injuries. The ear gets injured mainly because it is on the side of head and its position is at-risk. One main cause of ear avulsions is human bites. The other reasons can be accidents or dog bites.
The injured ear can be repaired or reattached by suturing or by conducting micro vascular surgery, which mainly depends on the severity of the injury. The surgery is effective in controlling the damages of the body parts, especially the ear, due to avulsion.
The ear can get back to working condition, but it needs persistence and continuous work on the damaged part of the skin. The ear that is suffering from avulsion needs to be rebuilt to look and to function correctly, which takes a long time.
With the help of cartilage and skin grafts, the external surface of the ear, which is needed to operate successfully, can be repaired.
Eyelid avulsions
Eyelid avulsions are uncommon and mostly take place due to motor vehicle collisions. They can also happen due to dog bites or human bites. Eyelid avulsions can be restructured by suturing with the help of a CT scan. Eyelids are the most delicate part of the skin, and they need extra care and caution while dealing with the injuries.
The eyelid needs to be tackled well, which includes muscular tissues, small in size nerves, and the blood vessels. The eyelid with injury needs re-building of the entire structure, and it all depends on the seriousness of the damage to the eyelids. Sometimes, part of functionality will be missing forever.
However, it depends on the expertise of the surgeon, repeated surgeries, and the overall result. Some surgeries, such as Microvascular surgery, cannot be used on eyelid surgeries. There are many other methods, such as injecting botulinum toxin (Botox), which help in paralyzing the eyelid while treating and healing the eyelid.
Nail avulsions
The nail avulsion is very painful, and it takes several weeks to overcome the injury. The torn nail will not be attached. If a nail is lost, then it is treated with a germinal layer. It helps in building the hard surface for the nail. The nail injury is common among sport men and women.
The nail is the most sensitive part of the body, and it makes the injury highly painful. To get a new nail after the removal of the damaged nail takes about 4 – 6 months for a fingernail. For the toes, it takes nearly one year before a fresh nail is grown.
Nerves and Spine Avulsions
The injuries which are commonly seen among the people are the minor or major form of injuries which take place in everyday activity of life. The injuries which damage nerves, spine, and even arms and shoulders are called brachial plexus avulsions.
It is a form of damage to the body and can be seen among young children. Sometimes such injuries can happen during delivery when the baby gets injured over the shoulder or arm. Although such injuries are rare in nature, it can happen in 1 or 2 in 1,000 births.
The shoulder injury or trauma can happen during accidental injuries. Sometimes the injuries cause serious damages to the nerves, which sometimes restrict the movement of the body part. Only timely surgeries help in re-gaining the lost functionalities of the body parts caused by serious damages.
Tooth avulsions
The tooth avulsion can be partial or complete. It can be a case of the dental pulp getting exposed or detached from the socket. The teeth injuries require replacements of teeth, which should match the size of teeth, color of teeth, and should fit to the entire structure of the teeth.
The teeth injuries and treatments are given to the secondary set of teeth and not for the primary set of teeth, which are not permanent in nature. If the secondary teeth get damaged, then they need to be repaired on time under dental supervision, and they can be cured of damages or replaced with suitable teeth.
If the teeth can be removed and kept outside during the night, then it is advised to keep the teeth in milk or sterilized saline, which keep the teeth solid and strong. The treatment helps in longer or shorter duration and depends on the harm caused by the avulsions.
