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Pain in bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, or muscles is musculoskeletal pain. A bone fracture can cause sudden, severe pain. An underlying condition like arthritis can cause pain. See a doctor if musculoskeletal pain limits your activities. The right treatment can reduce pain.

What's Musculoskeletal Pain?

Injury causes most musculoskeletal pain. Arthritis, overuse, poor posture, and radiated pain are other causes. Helpful treatments include medications and physical therapy. Musculoskeletal pain affects muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, and nerves. This pain is localized to your back. If you have fibromyalgia musculoskeletal pain, it can be systemic. 

Musculoskeletal Pain Types

Following are the different musculoskeletal pain types:

• Musculoskeletal chest pain: cramps, spasms, injuries, infections, tumors.

• Fractures and injuries cause bone pain. A bone tumor can cause pain, but rarely.

• Inflammation, stiffness, and infection cause joint pain.

• Strains, sprains, and overuse can cause tendon and ligament pain.

Symptoms of Musculoskeletal Pain

Symptoms vary based on the cause. Common symptoms includes:

• Movement can worsen muscle pain

• Limb or trunk stiffness or muscle twitching

• Sleep problems or daytime muscle fatigue

• Stiffness

• Soreness

• Redness and swelling

• Hearing cracks or popping in the joint 

• Difficulty moving affected area

• Weakness

• Poor sleep due to fatigue

• Muscle spasms/twitches Bruising

What Causes Musculoskeletal Pain?

Most musculoskeletal pain is caused by injuries, often acutely. Some conditions cause chronic musculoskeletal pain. Chronic pain can result from improperly healed injuries.

Acute Muscle Pain Causes

Musculoskeletal pain can result from injuries such as:

• Bone bruises (contusions)

• Bones break

• Joint dislocation

• Muscle bruises

• Tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and tennis elbow

• Sprained ligaments

• Muscle or tendon tear

These injuries can happen at any age. Athletes and manual laborers often have them. Some non-injury causes of acute musculoskeletal pain are muscle spasms and cramps.

• Muscle infection Pyomyositis

• Bone infection osteomyelitis

Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain Causes

Some conditions cause chronic musculoskeletal pain such as: 

• Rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.

• Scleroderma, SLE, and Ehlers-Danlos

• Fibromyalgia

• Gout

• Hypermobility of joints

• Muscular dystrophy and myositis are myopathies

• Osteoporosis

• Osteopenia

• Spinal stenosis and degenerative disk disease cause neck and back pain

• Stiffness

Treatments for Musculoskeletal Pain

Most pain doctors in Dallas treat musculoskeletal pain. Physical therapists, rheumatologists, osteopaths, orthopedic specialists, and others may treat you. The cause of your pain determines your treatment. Following are the best options for treatment and always consult your doctor before starting treatment:

Medications

• Tylenol

• Aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen are NSAIDs.

• The painful area may receive corticosteroid injections.

• opioids (only for severe pain due to dependency and side effects)

Manual Therapy

• Therapeutic massage

• Chiropractic

• Physical therapy for musculoskeletal pain management 

• Complementary therapies

• Acupuncture

• Vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements

• Wearing orthotics or braces

• Taping lumbar supports

• Surgery

If other chronic musculoskeletal pain treatments fail then surgery is usually performed. Procedures may involve: 

• Joint replacement

• Laminectomy

• Cartilage and soft tissue repair

• Arthroscopy

What are the Risks of Ignoring Musculoskeletal Pain?

Moderate to severe musculoskeletal injuries can cause chronic pain and mobility issues without treatment. This may lower your quality of life and prevent you from working. For severe or persistent pain, medical attention is essential. Your personalized treatment should begin as soon as possible. To determine the cause of joint pain, doctors identify: 

• The number and type of joints involved.

• Whether the spine and pelvis are affected

• If joint pain is acute or chronic.

Prevention

Following are the different ways of prevention:

• To maintain strong muscles, bones, and joints, exercise and stretch regularly.

• Avoid repetitive motions that can damage muscles and joints.

• Ergonomics includes proper lifting, posture, and computer workstation use. To maintain good posture all day.

Which Factors Reduce or Exacerbate Pain?

Identifying other symptoms, such as rash, fever, or dry eyes, can help identify the underlying disorder causing the pain. A physical examination helps pain physicians in Dallas determine these factors and other important findings that may help determine the pain's cause. Often, these pain symptoms do not indicate its cause. Thus, pain management in Dallas usually diagnoses based on other symptoms, physical examination findings, and laboratory and x-ray results. Lyme disease causes joint pain, swelling, and a bull's eye-like rash, and blood tests show antibodies to the bacteria that cause it. Gout is characterized by sudden pain, swelling, and redness in the base of the big toe or other joints. Joint fluid tests usually show uric acid crystals.

How to Diagnose Musculoskeletal Pain?

• Blood test: Blood tests only support the doctor's diagnosis after an exam. Blood tests alone do not diagnose. Blood tests like rheumatoid factor and antinuclear antibodies help diagnose arthritis conditions like systemic lupus erythematosus. Tests are usually recommended only if symptoms indicate a disorder.

• X-rays: The majority of X-rays are used to image bones, not muscles, tendons, or ligaments. If the doctor suspects a fracture, bone tumor, infection, or rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, X-rays are taken.

• MRI: MRI can detect abnormalities in muscles, bursae, ligaments, and tendons, unlike x-rays. Thus, MRI may be used when the doctor suspects damage to a major ligament or tendon or important joint structures, but it may not be better than an x-ray for many painful conditions. MRI can spot fractures x-rays miss.

• CT Scan: CT is more sensitive than x-rays and is used to investigate fractures and bone problems found by x-rays. CT scans are useful when MRI is unavailable.

• Other Methods: Ultrasound, arthrography, and bone scanning are other imaging tests. This test may help doctors of Dallas pain clinic diagnose certain conditions. Doctors may biopsy bone, synovium, or other tissues for microscopic examination.

• Sometimes swollen joints are tested for fluid. Following an antiseptic sterilization and anesthetic numbing, doctors of the musculoskeletal clinic near me remove joint fluid. Joint aspiration (arthrocentesis) involves inserting a needle into the joint to remove fluid. No pain is felt during this procedure. Besides bacteria that can cause infection, the fluid is examined under a microscope for gout crystals.

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