HOME TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 150, 28 June 1933, Page 13

HOME TREATMENT.

STRAINS AND "JARS." (By PERITUS.) A bail sprain is often more painful tlian a fracture, and tlic more quickly treatment follows tlie injury the quicker is tlio recovery. If, say tho ankle, is "turned" and there is a severe sprain, it can, with benefit, be strapped with one-and-a-half, or two-inch strapping as soon as possible, before there is great swelling, and rubbed with opium liniment before the strapping is applied. This reduces tho pain and gives great relief. If these remedies are not at hand, bathing with very hot water for 15 or 20 minutes, checks swelling and reduces pain. A workman with a sprained wriest will look for support and pressuro in a wrist strap, but this leather bracelet is no more than a poor imitation of the firm inelastic pressure of strong wide strapping, which can be applied over the lint if the wrist is hairy and the strapping would be uneonifortably adherent. In"my experience the application of cold to a sprain increases 'pain, and the ice pack is worse in this respect than cold running water. For a sprained back wide strips of belladonna plaster laid alternately left and right at an angle of about 35 degrees, beginning with tho point of the angle near the base of the spine, tho strips reaching across the loins, forms a good support and relieves pairi also, but an easier home treatment is to bathe with hot water until the skiri is bright red, dry tho surface and then rub in opium liniment (laudanum and soap liniment) and cover with a wide flannel bandage twice round the body —something like tho old cholera belt. Rest, in all cases of the kind, is not only advised, it is nearly always compelled if tho sprain is not trifling. Workers with garden tools, and oftener perhaps with tlio long axes, frequently sustain an injury to the wrist, an injury commonly known as a "jar." This requires the same treatment as a sprain, and may take as long to recover as a sprain. Hero there is internal bruising, tho result of local concussion, as compared with torn or stretched muscles or ligaments as in sprain.