When you think of serious injuries, most people think fractures – but damaging your ligaments can be equally as devastating, as I am all too familiar with myself! You think breaking your leg is bad? Try rupturing several ligaments in your knee requiring you to undergo a multi ligament reconstruction operation! Anyway – to define, a ligament is a soft fibrous tissue that connects bone to bone. You have them all over the body – and the famous ones to injure (for the footballers out there) are the dreaded cruciates!
There are several ways you can injure ligaments. In many cases, ligaments are stretched beyond their normal range of movement, and you end up with pain, swelling, stiffness, and the usual muscular related symptoms that will normally die down over time. However, things get a little more serious when you tear or rupture ligaments.
A torn ligament is exactly what you’re thinking – the tissue is torn; normally due to an overstretch far beyond the capacity the tissue has to stretch. Torn ligaments can be very painful – you will normally know when you’ve done it! The pain is normally enough to warrant you needing to see a GP or a medical expert, so you can usually get a diagnosis from them. For many torn ligaments – in the leg in the arm – after a few weeks or months you are commonly back to normal. However, some crucial tears like knee ligaments or elbow ligaments may require an operation.
Torn ligaments that require an operation is normally not a good sign. Unfortunately, ligaments that are torn to the extent they need an operation are likely to re-tear – especially for those whom play sports or put a lot of strain on the ligaments in question. The healing process may involve a lot of non use of the limb that’s injured – like non weight baring for legs, or slings for arms – and physiotherapy to build up the strength you rapidly lose from not using a limb is a huge part of the recovery process.
So what about the final stage of a ligament injury – the awful ligament rupture? Well here you’re probably going to need surgery to have some form of reconstruction done.
To use my example, I had sections of my patella ligament cut out and used to reconstruct where by ruptured collateral and lateral ligaments once where (assumedly the originals that were ruptured were cut out and binned!). For further stabilisation, I had a part of my hamstring pulled down and grated around the knee as well. All very drastic – but that’s what happens when you rupture ligaments.
When you compare most common fractures, it’s far worse. Bone on bone for most people heals brilliantly(so I am told) – that’s why your arm can be fractured all the way through and with a pot on for several months you end up felling as good as new. It’s easier to put two bones together and sew through them to allow them to rejoin – but I am informed that sewing a ruptured ligament back together is nigh impossible!
So if you do injure your ligaments in an accident that wasn’t your fault, you should get in touch with us right away to claim leg injury compensation you deserve. You do not have to have suffered from a fracture to claim! Ligaments injuries as I’ve outlined above can be far far worse. Call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 for advice on whether you can make a claim for ligament injury compensation.
