by Brett D. Sachs, DPM
We're going to talk about some common things here. Soft tissue injuries, foot and ankle sprains, Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, and common foot and ankle fractures, pretty much most of these, I think, are, all of these are work-related injuries, and that's kind of why I picked them. Obviously there are many, many other injuries, but I wanted to talk about some of the more common ones. A systematic approach to these is really where we want to be. It helps to limit some complications and optimize patient care. So when we first start off we look at the size, and the shape, the location. It helps me determine whether there are any other injuries that are involved, the mechanism of injury as well. Is there any other potential injury around the similar, adjacent soft tissues? Some of the more severe injuries actually may require surgery because I can't see what's going on. I may have to clean it out and surgically inspect the wound. When they see me versus when it actually started can help me determine what needs to be next. There can be situations with infection, or things of that nature. Typically the magic number is eight hours. So If i can see these things within eight hours, unfortunately sometimes that doesn't always happen, I can help prevent infection and things of that nature. The likelihood of contamination, from animal bites and industrial injuries. Tetanus is one of the things we miss, overlook quite often. A basic minor wound, all we need to do is find out were they vaccinated or not? That can help us determine whether we need to do anything else. When they become contaminated, when they become dirty, puncture wound or serious wounds, that's when we have to start assuming that they're not vaccinated, and start treating them as such.
