Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney

Sprains and Strains caused by Car Accidents

An experienced accident attorney is familiar with the various injuries that accident victims experience following vehicle collisions.  Sprains and Strains are common automobile accident injuries.  As such, your accident attorney should be closely acquainted with these types of automobile injuries.

What are Sprains and Strains?

Sprains are injuries to ligaments.  Ligaments are the fibrous connective tissues that connect bone to bone.  Strains are injuries to muscles, tendons, or both.  Tendons connect muscle to bone.  Thus, sprains involve ligaments, and strains involve tendons or muscle.  Both sprains and strains are classified according to “grades” of severity, with Grade I being the least severe, and Grade III being the most severe.  A description of these classifications follows below.

Classification of Sprains

Grade I sprains involve pain and tenderness, especially with movement of the affected area, but no swelling or bruising or loss of function.

Grade II sprains involve moderate damage as well as swelling and bruising.  Movement is very painful, and there is some functional loss to the affected area.

Grade III sprains involve complete ligament tear.  In a grade III sprain, there is serious swelling and bruising, and an abnormal increase in range of motion due to the ligament tear.  In a grade III sprain, the pain may be less severe than a lower grade sprain due to the fact that nerves may have been torn.  Functional loss is significant and recovery may require surgery.

Classification of Sprains

Grade I sprains, like grade I strains, involve some pain and tenderness, especially with movement of the affected area, but no swelling or bruising or loss of function.

Grade II sprains involve moderate damage with some swelling and tenderness.  Pain results from both passive and active movement of the affected area, and joint range of motion is limited.  The accident victim will need a longer rehabilitation period.

Grade III sprains involve a complete tear of the muscle, tendon, or both.  There is extreme swelling and tenderness, and there may be a complete loss of muscle function.  Due to tearing of nerve fibers, there is generally no pain increase during a passive stretch of the affected area.  Recovery often necessitates surgery and a protracted rehabilitation period.