25 myths about trauma that are interesting only in theory

Recently, Twitter user @glazzzvlad, who is also a Moscow traumatologist Vladislav Viktorovich, offered to write facts about modern traumatology for likes. The life hacker armed himself with the most interesting of them, found no less interesting information and compiled a list of common myths about injuries.

Fractures

Myth 1: A fracture in a bone is less serious injury than a fracture

A crack is a fracture, only without displacement and with the preservation of the isthmus of intact bone tissue. Fractures also include fractures, depressions, and cracking.

Myth 2. If you can move a finger, then it is not broken

In some cases, the fracture can affect the movement of the affected body part, but more often you can move it. Mobility should not be the determining factor for self-diagnosis.

Myth 3. A fracture can be recognized by pain or swelling

The pain can be unbearable, or it can be quite mild. If only because this is a subjective impression and there are very hardy and patient people among people. In addition, the pain is not necessarily localized at the site of the fracture, since bone fragments damage adjacent tissues and discomfort can spread over a large area.

So, you should not be guided by the level of pain and even more so wait for a bruise to appear, an injury is a reason to see a doctor.

Myth 4. An injured limb needs to be cooled or warmed

With cooling, that's right: an ice pack will ease the pain. With warming, the opposite situation will occur: it will cause blood flow to the place of exposure to heat, increase the swelling, and the pain will become stronger.

Myth 5. To break ribs you need to hit hard

Ribs can be broken, for example, by coughing or sneezing. Injury occurs due to the strong contraction of the muscles of the chest wall.

Myth 6. A doctor will help you heal broken ribs faster

In the vast majority of cases, doctors simply observe the splicing process. Medical assistance, and emergency, is required when the rib is broken in several places. Such an injury interferes with breathing and surgery is needed.

Myth 7. A spinal fracture leads to complete immobility

It is possible to get a fracture of the spine and not know about it. If there is no damage to the spinal cord and spinal nerves, motor function is usually preserved.

Myth 8. Spinal cord injury permanently immobilizes

People with this trauma usually experience some loss of sensory and motor function. But both the degree of damage and the possibility of recovery depend on the specific case. Some injured people return to full life after rehabilitation.

Myth 9. A doctor can immediately give an accurate forecast for recovery

If the doctor is not a telepathic (and most likely not), he will not be able to say exactly how long rehabilitation will take and what results it will have. This is influenced by many factors, including the patient's attitude.

Myth 10. Gypsum completely immobilizes the fracture site

The bones continue to move even in a cast - this is a natural process of fusion. But parts of the bone can rush in different directions, so you have to periodically take X-rays to track and correct this.

Myth 11. Bone splicing is a natural process

Mostly yes. Doctors allow the bones to grow together in a way designed by nature. But in some cases it is necessary to interfere with the natural process. For example, if we are talking about a possible deterioration in joint function due to the formation of callus. In this case, the bone is rigidly fixed so that it cannot move at all.

Myth 12. Diet can speed up the process of bone fusion

The splicing period cannot be shortened - it can only be lengthened. But a balanced menu doesn't hurt anyway.

Cuts and traumatic amputations

Myth 13. In case of a cut, you can bandage yourself, it will heal by itself

In some cases, you don't even need to go to the emergency room, but call an ambulance:

If bleeding does not stop within five minutes. Blood loss is unlikely to make you healthier.
If a foreign object remains in the wound. It must be removed by a doctor, otherwise there is a risk of injuring yourself even more.
If you cut your hand badly. The emergency room will not help you - you need a surgeon who will connect the damaged tissue in such a way as to maintain full mobility of the hand.

Myth 14. Severed fingers are only sewn in the movies

If you search for news on the keyword "sewed a finger", you will be surprised how often doctors have to do such operations. And the severed limbs began to be sewn not yesterday.

True, @glazzzvlad writes that the arm will be restored with more zeal than the leg. Lower limb prosthetics are well developed and allow the patient to lead a normal life, while reconstruction is a long and painful process. So cutting off a leg is more expedient than restoring it.

Myth 15. No one has been sick with tetanus for a long time, you do not need to be vaccinated

Russians rarely get tetanus. For example, in the Kama region, no one was diagnosed with such a diagnosis from 2004 to 2016. But this became possible precisely thanks to vaccinations: the vaccination program reduced the incidence of this infection by 50 times.

High mortality and severely tolerable symptoms are a good reason to visit the emergency room if you have injured your skin. You can get infected simply by falling on the street and scraping your knee.

Bites

Myth 16. For rabies, 40 injections in the stomach are given

For adults, the rabies vaccine is given in the shoulder and for children in the front of the thigh. You cannot give an injection into the buttock - this is written in the instructions for the drug. And not 40 injections are done, but only six.

Myth 17. It is necessary to go to the doctor if a "wild" animal has bitten

The animal becomes a carrier of the pathogen approximately 10 days before symptoms begin. It is dangerous even if it looks cute and healthy. It should be especially puzzling when an animal that came from the wild begins to caress - this indicates an illness, because such behavior is unnatural.

You can feel completely safe only if you are bitten by a domestic cat, who saw the will only through the window.

Myth 18. You can take your time to see a doctor until the first symptoms appear

It doesn't work with rabies. When symptoms appear, medicine is powerless. The mortality rate from rabies is close to 100%.

History knows isolated cases of cure for rabies. For example, a 15-year-old girl recovered after being immersed in an artificial coma. But let's be frank, almost none of us has a chance to add these statistics.

Myth 19. There is no prophylactic vaccination against rabies

There are, but only for people from the risk group - those who have to interact with animals by occupation. The rest are most often vaccinated upon a bite.

Accident

Myth 20. Seat belts in cars only interfere with escape

According to the WHO, seat belts reduce the risk of death for a passenger in the front seat by 40-50%, in the back - by 75%. If the driver is not fastened during a collision, then in 90% of cases he will break his chest and injure the abdominal cavity. And if he or one of the passengers flies out through the windshield, it will end in death in the overwhelming majority of cases.

User @glazzzvlad estimates the chances of flying out through the windshield at 20%.

For every advice to wear a seat belt, of course, there are hundreds of people whose acquaintance survived only because he was not wearing a seat belt. But the fastened ones often come by themselves, but the unfastened ones are brought in and often no longer taken away.

@glazzzvlad trauma doctor

Usually, arguments against using a belt are related to the fact that a person will not have time to get out of a burning car. But the car will light up if the collision occurs at high speed. In this case, an unfastened person will still not be able to get out, since, most likely, he will be dead.

Myth 21. The victim in an accident must be removed from the car as soon as possible, or it will explode

If there is no fire and fuel and lubricants are not spilled, the victim must not be touched under any circumstances. Its condition and transportability should be assessed by doctors. Moving around with a spinal injury can make the situation much worse.

It is better to take care of the placement of warning signs at the scene of the accident. This will eliminate the situation when an inattentive driver crashes into an already damaged car.

Myth 22. The scene of a fatal accident is covered in blood

Fatal injuries may not be visible from the outside. At the moment of a collision, a person experiences almost cosmic overloads, especially if the car is moving at high speed. From the impact, the car stops abruptly, and the human organs continue to move inside the body. A collision with the chest can lead to rupture and internal bleeding.

Burns

Myth 23. Severe burns should be greased with butter or sour cream

These foods are a breeding ground for microbes. A colony of microorganisms is not at all what a painful open wound needs. You need to go to the emergency room immediately, they will tell you what to do.

Myth 24. You need to apply ice to a burn

Any object with a negative temperature for burns is more suitable for torture than for help. Temperature contrast will only accelerate skin breakdown. Pain in minor burns can be reduced by placing the affected area under cool (not ice-cold) water.

Bleeding

Myth 25. If you have nosebleeds, you need to tilt your head back

This cannot be done, since there is a great risk of choking on blood. On the contrary, the head should be tilted forward. And in order not to flood everything around, you can insert cotton swabs into your nose.