DefinitionAn abdominal wall strain is a strain to the muscles or the tendons of the abdominal wall. Normally the strain will affect the abdominal wall muscles were they attach to the tendons of the abdominal wall as this is the weakess point of the contractile unit, but can also occur any place along muscle or tendon.
There is three grades of a strain and you can read about them here
STRAINSBody parts Involved- - abdomial muscles and tendons
- bones of the abdominal area such as ribs, pubic bone and iliac crest bone.
Signs & Symptoms- pain is felt when moving the abdominal muscles
- swelling in the abdominal area
- loss of strength (seen with grade 2 & grade 3 strains)
- crepitation apon palpation of the affected area
- inflammation of the tendon sheath
Causes- sudden injury caused by excessive force to the abdominal muscles and tendons. This would be an acute muscle strain.
- Overuse of the muscles and tendons over a long period, this would be a chronic muscle strain.
How to prevent
The best way to try and prevent a strain is to warm up prior to doing any activity and to start a stretching and flexibility program designed for the activity you are doing.
It is important with any strain injury to seek out medical advice as these injuries can start off as a grade 1 and quickly progress unnoticed into a grade 2 or even worse a comlete rupture of the muscles a grade 3! A grade 1 is easily treated with R.I.C.E. but grade 2 and 3 require cinsiderable healing time and stopage of the activity that caused the strain in the first place. So air on the side of caution in the case of a potential strain.
