Orthopedic/Musculoskeletal Disorders Flashcards
(106 cards)
Cartilage
Lines articular bones
Protects against impact and friction
Gets blood through osmosis, so it doesn’t easily heal, if at all
No nerves, so it doesn’t hurt when you tear it
Thickening of cartilage in the knee - meniscus or disc
Types:
- Hyaline cartilage: most common; found in nose and ribs
- Fibrocartilage: found in intervertebral disks, joint capsules, and ligaments
Ligaments
Connect articulating bones
Prevent movement
Have very little vascular supply
Take a long time to heal
Ulnar collateral ligament of MP joint of thumb
- Gamekeeper’s thumb or skier’s thumb
- AKA medial collateral ligament
Types of muscle movement
Isotonic
- eccentric: lengthening of muscle
- concentric: shortening of muscle
Isometric
- muscle contraction, not shortening or lengthening
- happens with co-contraction of flexors and extensors
What is muscle atrophy?
muscle wasting, often with age
Muscle spasm or cramp
Painful condition of muscle contraction (temporary)
Reason is varied and unknown
Muscle spasticity
Involuntary, intense, and sometimes painful contraction due to inappropriate CNS neural signs
Not strength
Ashworth’s scale
Muscle contracture
Muscle shortening from being stationary
Muscle fatigue
Decreased blood supply
Exhaustion of ACT
Accumulation of lactic acid (most common)
Myalgia
Muscle strain
RICE
Bleed and bruise
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Extreme fatigue lasting for at least 6 months and can’t be explained by any other medical cause
Symptoms:
- Post-exertional malaise
- Unrefreshing sleep
- Brain fog
- Muscle and joint pain
- Headache and light sensitivity
- Chills
- Stomach pain, bloating, nausea
- Sinus problems, swollen glands, tender lymph nodes, sore throat
No known cause or cure
Fibromyalgia
Often triggered by physical or emotional stress
If you have lupus or rheumatoid arthritis (RA), you are more likely to develop fibromyalgia.
Symptoms:
- Fatigue, cognitive and memory problems, headaches, diziness, trouble sleeping
- Vision problems
- Tender points
- Nausea
- Urinary problems, dysmenorrhea in women
- Restless leg syndrome
- Joint pain and stiffness
- Skin problems
- Muscle pain
- Jaw pain
Medication and stress reduction can help symtoms.
Bones
Provide structure
Reservoir of calcium and phosphate
Site of hematopoiesis
- RBC creation
Haversian canals (blood vessels in bones)
- avascular necrosis
- Kienbock’s disease: lunate (high risk for avascular necrosis)
Epiphyseal plates
- harden at 18 for women and 22 for men
- bone mass decreases at 40-60
Constant rate of uptake and production
- osteoblasts and osteocytes produce
- osteoclasts absorb
Wolfe’s law
What is Wolfe’s law?
Soft tissue (musculoskeletal tissue and bone) responds to the forces placed on it.
- Weight bearing can decrease the affect of the disease
- Osteoporosis can begin 6 weeks after spine injury
Rickets (Osteomalacia)
- bad bones
- due to vitamin D and E deficiency
- common in children outside the US
- bowing is caused by bodyweight
- can be corrected
Nerves
Get impinged or compressed by soft tissue or neuromuscular structures
- can get compressed against humerus when sleeping funny
Radial nerve
Innervates extensor wad
Responsible for wrist, thumb, and MP extension
Clinical presentation:
- Weakness of wrist dorsiflexion and finger extension, causing wrist drop and MP drop
What happens if there is damage to the axilla?
All radial-innervated muscles are involved
- anconeus and triceps
Decreased sensation
Arm drop
Limp and uncoordinated self-feeding
Very jerky
What happens if there is damage to the spiral groove?
All radial-innervated muscles distal to the triceps are weak
- extensor wad in forearm
What happens if there is damage to isolated posterior interosseous lesions (PIN)?
Sensation is spared and motor involvement occurs in radial muscles distal to the supinator
Lose a little bit of thumb and sensation
Innervation of the radial nerve
The radial n. innervates motor outside the hand in the extrinsic muscles of the forearm. Once it crosses over into the hand, it only functions in sensory.
Posterior interosseous nerve coarse
Ulnar nerve
Ulnar n. in ulnar groove - funny bone
- innervates adductor pollicis long head
- flexes intrinsic and ulnar half of lumbricals
- Guyon’s tunnel
- when power comes from
Ulnar nerve palsy
Occurs due to compression at the elbow (cubital tunnel) or at the wrist (Guyon’s tunnel)
Muscle weakness and atrophy predominate the clinical presentation
If it gets trapped at the cubital tunnel, there will be numbness and tingling
Can cause ulnar claw hand
- caused by an imbalance between strong extrinsic muscles and weakened intrinsic muscles
- MCP hyperextension
- PIP and DIP flexion
Median nerve
Injury at elbow or wrist
Commonly compressed at the wrist causing carpal tunnel syndrome
Deformity or ape-like hand
- flat thenar eminence and adducted thumb
Opposition and abduction aren’t possible leading to loss of pincer-like action of hand
- difficulty with fine motor tasks like buttoning
Cause:
- paralysis and wasting of the muscles of the thenar eminence
- adductor pollicis is unopposed since it is supplied by ulnar n.
- opponens pollicis, abductor pollicis brevis, and flexor pollicis brevis
Big driver of thumb flexion and adduction, except for deep adductor pollicis
If anterior interosseous n. injury is present, the patient will be unable to bring together the distal phalanx or thumb and index finger to make the OK sign.