Emergency medical skills often help save lives. After all, doctors can not always arrive instantly. Therefore, we suggest that you study what first aid is for joint sprains, bruises, dislocations and fractures. If you learn these simple steps, you can cope with mild forms of injury on your own.
What is a dislocation, sprain, bruise and fracture?
A sprain is an injury to the soft tissues of the ligaments or those around the joint. As a rule, blood vessels adjacent to the rupture site also suffer. To earn a sprain, it is enough just to stumble, slip, exaggerate physical activity.
Dislocation is the result of a bone falling out of its place ("nest"). In other words, the articular bones are displaced. For example, as a result of heavy physical exertion or some kind of body movements. The most commonly dislocated parts of the body are the leg, arm,finger and shoulder.
A bruise is damage to tissues (sometimes organs) without disturbing their structure. With light bruises, the skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscles and periosteum are injured. During severe bruises, internal organs can be damaged and even tissue necrosis can occur.
Fracture is a violation of the integrity of the bone as a result of severe damage. There are open fractures, when adjacent tissues are injured, the skin and a wound is formed, and closed ones.
Inexperienced people may confuse a dislocation with a closed fracture. The main distinguishing feature of the latter is that the pain does not go away even after time, and the injured area begins to swell and change color to dark blue.
Signs and symptoms
Both of these injuries, dislocation and sprain, are often confused with fractures, as they have similar symptoms:
- pain at or around the injury site;
- tumor (swelling, hematoma);
- complete or partial inability to move;
- deformation of a limb or part of the body (typical for open and closed fractures, dislocations);
- any discoloration (discoloration, bruising, blueness).
What do you need for first aid?
First aid for sprains and sprains is not possible without some materials:
- elastic bandage or something that can replace it in the near future (for example, a rag, clothes, a regular gauze bandage, a towel, bedding, and so on);
- scissors;
- a splint that can be replaced with any flat solid object (such as a stick).
First aid
First aid for sprains and other injuries is to minimize further damage to the injured area and not provoke deterioration.
If a person is not familiar with the rules of first aid, then it is better for him not to take any action, since even one wrong move can lead to serious consequences.
Sprain
First aid for sprains and torn ligaments:
- Tightly bandage the injured limb. But don't cut off circulation. To control this, it is better to leave your fingertips unbandaged, as their color will signal a violation of blood circulation.
- Reduce the functionality of the injured limb by placing it in a bandage.
- Take the victim to a medical facility where he should be x-rayed. This is necessary in order to exclude fractures and confirm or refute a torn ligament.
Severe sprains or ruptures require a cast. It is not possible to do this at home, so medical intervention is simply necessary.
With simple sprains, the injured person should temporarily stop playing sports, in particular running andride a bike. And to reduce the load on a limb with stretched ligaments, use special assistive devices:
- orthotic insoles if the foot is injured;
- bandages if the hand is injured;
- retainers if the finger is damaged.
At first bed rest is desirable.
Bruises
First aid for bruises and sprains is somewhat different and has the following sequence of actions:
- If the injury is accompanied not only by a bruise, but also by an abrasion, then the damaged area must be disinfected with brilliant green, iodine or hydrogen peroxide.
- An ice pack is applied to the bruised area for twenty minutes.
- A tight pressure bandage is applied.
For three days, cold can be applied to the bruised place, after which it is replaced with a warm heating pad. For speedy healing, the injured area can be lubricated with special ointments and gels for bruises.
In most cases, medical attention is not required. But if, after a bruise, the victim experiences dizziness, fainting, or if the injury was severe and inflicted on the abdomen, head, back, then the help of medical personnel is simply necessary, as there is a risk of internal bleeding.
Also, in order to determine whether professional medical intervention is needed, it is not recommended to give the victim anypainkillers. Since they can hide the symptoms of a serious injury that was difficult to recognize at first.
Dislocations
First aid for dislocations:
- The dislocated part of the body should be fixed with a splint.
- Place cold on the dislocation site.
- Try to immobilize the dislocated limb as much as possible. For example, if an arm or shoulder is injured, bandage it over the he althy shoulder.
- Take the victim to a medical facility.
If you do not have a medical education and have not taken first aid courses, then it is better not to try to insert a dislocated limb into place. There is a possibility that the hand, foot or finger will not fit correctly, and the pain caused is too great to justify mistakes.
At first, it is advisable to observe bed rest.
Open fractures
First aid for fractures and sprains is different. This is especially true for open fractures.
Procedure for first aid for open fractures:
- It is necessary to remove bone fragments and other possible objects from the wound with tweezers.
- The skin around the injury is treated with a five percent iodine solution or hydrogen peroxide.
- A sterile bandage is applied.
- The damaged area is fixed with a tire, under which it is necessary to putcotton-gauze pillow or something soft.
The victim after first aid must be urgently sent to a medical facility where professionals will do all the necessary manipulations.
Closed fractures
Treatment for closed fractures is similar to first aid for sprains:
- The damaged area is bandaged tightly enough.
- If a wounded person has a broken limb, then it must be placed in a bandage or fixed.
After that, the wounded man is taken to a medical facility, where he is x-rayed and put in a plaster cast.
How to put on a bandage?
First aid for sprains and other injuries is mainly to properly bandage the injured area.
Of course, depending on the type of injury (simple contusion, dislocation, joint sprain, fractures, and so on), dressings may differ from each other. But the principle of their imposition remains the same:
- The person who provides first aid must have clean hands. Ideally, they should be washed with soap, if this is not possible or you need to act immediately, then it is enough to treat them with some kind of antiseptic (sprays, wipes).
- If the injured place has an abrasion or an open fracture is present, then the area around the bruise (fracture) must be treated with hydrogen peroxide, iodine or brilliant green. As a last resort - alcohol.
- The victim is placed in a comfortable position with a convenient approach to the injured area.
- Bandage in a spiral from the bottom up. For example, if an arm or leg is injured, then the bandage is directed from the fingers to the torso.
- 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 injury.
- Each new layer of bandage should cover the previous one-third.
- The last turns of the bandage are the same as the first ones - fixing and located above 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.
First Aid Notes
First aid for sprains and other injuries will be mishandled if the person providing it does not follow the existing notes.
The list includes the following:
- Do not try to push the fracture or dislocation back into place on your own - this could result in further injury.
- It can be difficult for people without medical education to determine what kind of injury is a fracture, dislocation or sprain. When in doubt, always treat an injury as a fracture.
- If your collarbone is broken, keep your hand slightly away from the victim by making a bandage.
- If you suspect a dislocated joint, rest the affected area and apply an ice pack.
After injuries, the victim mayappear from time to time minor discomfort in the injured area (for example, pulling pains that appear with a change in weather from sunny to rainy). But such a result is possible with almost one hundred percent probability if first aid for sprains, dislocations, bruises and fractures was not correctly provided. Therefore, this is another encouragement to comply with all points from the above notes.
The most important thing is that first aid for sprains, dislocations, bruises and some other injuries should be provided by a person who has not succumbed to panic and thinks sensibly. In most cases, the success of healing of damaged areas depends on this.
