What Are Soft-Tissue Injuries?

Some serious injuries are immediately identified after a car accident, like broken bones, burns, or lacerations. However, soft-tissue injuries are sometimes overlooked or minimized after a car accident. In some cases, the symptoms may be mild or unnoticed immediately after the accident, but as inflammation builds up and adrenaline subsides, the symptoms worsen and become painful and debilitating. What are soft-tissue injuries, and why is it important to promptly diagnose and treat soft-tissue injuries after a car accident?

What Is a Soft-Tissue Injury?

Soft-tissue injuries can cover a range of bodily trauma, including bruising, burning, cuts, and abrasions—or any injury to the body’s tissue rather than the bones or skull. However, in car accident cases, the term soft-tissue injuries most commonly covers injuries to the limbs, neck, and back that occur to muscles and ligaments. These injuries occur from the crash force of the accident which propels motorists forward at the rate of speed the car was traveling until the seatbelt or internal structure of the vehicle snaps them back. Some soft-tissue injuries do not present with immediate symptoms after the accident, but worsen and become more obvious during the hours and days following a crash due to inflammation.

Common Soft-Tissue Injuries After Car Accidents

Soft-tissue injuries can occur on any body part with muscles and ligaments, but there are common places that suffer soft-tissue injuries in collisions. For example, the wrists are often under tremendous strain when a driver is holding the steering wheel during a collision, the ankles are braced against the floorboard or pedals, and the shoulders bear the brunt of crash force in a collision when motorists wear a seatbelt. Common soft tissue injuries include sprains and torn ligaments such as the following:

• Whiplash, caused by the rapid, forceful back-and-forth movement of the head which overextends the muscles in the neck
• Shoulder injuries such as a torn rotator cuff
• Sprained wrists
• Knee injuries like a torn ACL, MCL, or ACL—the three major ligaments in the knee
• Ankle sprains
• Tendonitis or the swelling of tendons around the joints
• Bursitis from the swelling of the bursae, or small, fluid-filled cushions between joints
• Contusions, or bruises caused by bleeding and swelling under the skin
• Lacerations or cuts through the skin or skin and muscles

Lacerations are immediately obvious after an accident because they are soft-tissue injuries that appear on the skin’s surface and cause bleeding; however, injuries to the muscles and ligaments below the surface of the skin may take longer to develop painful symptoms that restrict movement and limit range of motion.

Categories of Severity in Soft-Tissue Injuries

Doctors categorize soft-tissue injuries by the severity of the injury. Grade-one injuries are mild soft-tissue injuries that include damage from stretching and swelling that’s visible on a microscopic level in the muscles and ligaments. Grade-two injuries are moderate soft-tissue injuries which include some tearing of the muscle or ligament. Grade-three injuries are severe soft-tissue injuries in which the muscle or ligament is completely torn through or severed, causing the immediate inability to use the limb or part.

How Can a Car Accident Lawyer in New Haven Help?

It’s important to go to a hospital or urgent care clinic as soon as possible after a car accident, even if you believe your injuries are mild or you’re uninjured. A medical examination may find and document your soft tissue injury and allow treatment to begin as soon as possible to minimize the damage for faster healing. It also provides critical evidence that the injury occurred in the car accident.
Call the New Haven car accident lawyers at Weber & Rubano for a free consultation if your soft-tissue injury occurred in a car accident and has caused significant economic and non-economic damages like medical expenses and lost wages.