Sports injuries outcome 2 Muscular systemWhen a muscle tissue is damaged it undergoes a repair process, which

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Richard Aldridge

Unit 17: sports injuries outcome 2

Muscular system

When a muscle tissue is damaged it undergoes a repair process, which begins on the third day after injury once the swelling has started to go down and reduce. By this stage the damaged blood vessels will have been restored, enabling them to deliver oxygen and also nutrients to the specific tissue, which has been damaged.  Muscle cannot produce new tissue so it therefore produces scar tissue. This is mainly collagen, which is fibrous and inelastic, it is not as strong or as flexible as muscle tissue and therefore as a result the muscles function is reduced.

Ligaments and tendons

Ligaments and tendons are soft tissues that are primarily made out of collagen. Ligaments connect bone to bone and tendons connect muscle to bone. Ligaments and tendons can adapt to changes within their mechanical environment due to cause such as injury, disease or exercise. A ligament or tendon is made up of fascicles. Each fascicle contains the basic fibril of the ligament or tendon, and the fibroblasts, which are the cells that make the ligament or tendon. Unlike normal ligaments, healed ligaments are partly made up of a different type of collagen, which has fibrils with a smaller diameter and is therefore a mechanically inferior structure. As a result the healed ligament is often fails to provide adequate joint stability, which can therefore lead to re injury or a chronically lax (permanently unstable) joint.

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Scar tissue

This is where there is bleeding in the gap between the torn muscle ends, and from this blood a matrix, or scaffold, is formed to anchor the two ends together. This matrix eventually forms a scar within the muscle that makes the muscle more resistant to further stretch damage

Whilst a person is injured scar tissue is formed which acts as a glue to hold torn fibres together. Scar tissue forms primarily in muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. It has plastic properties which means it can be influenced by stretching and moulding. It is laid down in ...

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