What is the difference between a tear and a sprain

The main difference is that with a sprain you may have bruising around the affected joint, whereas with a strain, you may have spasms in the affected muscle. Certain situations make you more likely to injure your joints. These include:.

Anyone at any point can experience a sprain or strain, but certain risk factors increase your odds for overstretching a joint. These risk factors include:. Doctors often diagnose a sprain or strain by excluding other causes for your symptoms. After a brief physical exam, your doctor may request an X-ray. An X-ray will rule out any breaks or fractures.

An MRI can give your doctor a very detailed view of the joint. If neither the MRI nor X-ray reveals any breaks or injuries to the bone, your doctor will likely diagnose a sprain or strain. Mild strains and mild sprains are treated with the same technique. This technique is known as RICE.

RICE stands for:. For the first 24 to 48 hours after your injury, RICE may make you more comfortable and reduce signs and symptoms. More severe strains and sprains may require surgery to repair damaged or torn ligaments, tendons, or muscles.

If you experience any of the following, see a doctor about your sprain or strain:. For mild strains or sprains, most people can return to limited activities in two to three days. Even when you feel up to activities again, take extra precaution to protect the joint. You might want to tape the joint or support it with a brace for a bit until the tissue has had time to heal. But with it comes the risk of motion injuries. Run just a little too hard in that family softball game and you might suffer a sprain.

People can get these injuries confused, so we asked, Robert Wilsterman MD , an orthopedic surgeon based in Falmouth, to straighten things out. Wrenching your ankle is a common type of sprain. Typical symptoms include pain, inflammation, bruising or instability in the joint. It can involve tearing some or all of the muscle fibers, tendons or ligaments attached to a bone or muscle. Tears can happen in many ways but examples he cited included people who fall on slippery steps and rupture the quad tendons or a coach who jumps out of the dugout on a cold, practice day and ruptures an Achilles tendon.

Tears may require surgery to repair. Symptoms include swelling, bruising, redness due to the injury, pain or weakness when the muscle or joint is used, or inability to use the muscle. Treatment: Initial care involves ice, elevation and compression to contain the swelling and promote healing, he said. A sprain involves the overstretching or tearing of the ligaments, which are the fibrous connective tissues that connect bones to each other and stabilize them.

On the other hand, inner-ankle sprains, which are less common than those on the outside of the ankle, result from the ankle rocking inward and the foot turning outward.

Joint or muscle pain, inflammation, hampered movement, tenderness and bruising are symptoms of a sprain. The severity of the sprain can range from mild to serious. A tweak of the ankle could result in an overstretched ligament that becomes tender, swollen and stiff, but the ankle should still be stable enough to support the weight of walking. Recovery from a torn ligament may take several weeks, and should be done under the supervision of a health care provider.

A strain is the overstretching or tearing of a muscle or tendon, which are the fibers that connect the muscles to the bones. They can occur from a single incident or from repetitive movements over the long term. Muscle spasms, weakness, cramping and immobility, as well as pain, bruising and swelling are symptomatic of a strain. Like sprains, strains vary in severity. It could take a few weeks for the symptoms of a mild-to-moderate strain to subside.

Tears are the ripping of fibrous tissue that can occur in the ligaments, muscles or tendons from similar activities that cause fibers to overstretch, but the diagnosis is more serious and muscle and tendon tears could take multiple months to heal. Non-surgical rehabilitation is often sufficient. However, some tears may require surgery to repair, such as those to the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL.