National Pain Week 2021 - Acute Pain

Acute pain: Causes and treatments
Pain is a message sent via the nervous system from an injured body part to the brain. This pain signal usually signals to the brain that the body’s tissues are being damaged or are in danger of being damaged.
Acute pain is caused by damage to the tissues through injury, inflammation or an active disease process. Acute pain generally passes as the affected tissues heal and rarely lasts longer than 3 months. The rate of healing, and therefore pain reduction, is dependent on which tissue is damaged.
Causes of acute pain include things like

• Fractures
  
• Sprains
  
• Strains
  
• Dislocations
  
• Cuts
  
• Burns
  
• Surgeries, etc…
  

Treatment of acute pain varies significantly with the cause. With fractures we focus on immobilisation to stabilise the break and elevation to reduce swelling. Sprains and strains and other musculoskeletal injuries are often treated initially with the POLICE principle: Protect, Optimal Loading, Ice, Compression and Elevation. This process is to ensure that the injury is protected, whilst allowing adequate use of the body part to retain strength. 
During a period of acute pain, it is important to be fully assessed by a professional to ascertain the cause of your pain and commence treatment as soon as appropriate for your injury. This will ensure that an acute injury does not later become chronic pain.

Amalia Rawson
Physiotherapist
B.Physio

☎️ 6352 3131
✉️ [email protected]
ℹ️ www.tablelandsphysio.com.au