Injury Centre | Thigh | Hamstring

 

Hamstring

Hamstrings are unusual in that they pass over two joints, the hip and the knee. They are therefore most likely to be injured when the hip is bent and the knee fully straightened. Further stretching may cause an injury that varies from a strain to a classic rip.

Hamstring Strains

Although the hamstrings run down the back of the thigh, injury to the lower part may well be felt behind the knee, either on the inside or outside.

Symptoms

• pain behind the knee, but, depending on whether the muscle sheath higher up the thigh is breached, there may or may not be visible tracking of blood down the thigh.

Signs

• While the knee is bent and the area is not under pressure, there may appear to be little wrong. Straightening the knee and stretching the hamstrings should show all the classic signs of a hamstring injury.

What else may it be?
A bursa around the hamstring insertions, a Baker’s cyst or ligament strains may all cause pain in roughly the same site. Careful examination should eliminate these.

Self-treatment
Following at least 48 hours of Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation (RICE), bleeding should have died down and you can start to stretch. If it's painful still, see Hamstring tears below.

Professional treatment
Combining the use of ice and stretching with physio and/or ultrasound should bring about a complete cure.

Hamstring Tears

Symptoms
You feel sudden pain when the muscle is over-stretched, e.g.when sprinting on the football pitch for the ball. It then hurts immensly upon straightening of the knee.

Indicators
A medical professional could usually put a finger on the site of a tear and induce significant pain. There may be a gap within the muscle, or hardened bruising, but it is encouraging if there is visible bleeding under the skin and tracking of the blood flow towards the knee. This indicates that the sheath of muscle has been breached, blood has escaped and healing will therefore be more rapid. Pain occurs if bending the knee is resisted, or if the patient attempts to stretch the muscle.

What else could it be?
Damage to the sciatic nerve by a lumbar disc is a well-recognised red herring which causes pain in the back of the thigh. The doctor will also wish to exclude those infections, tumours and bone and muscle disease which strike these areas once in his professional lifetime.

Self-treatment
Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation - RICE. It is important to remember that this should be continued through rehabilitation, as the muscle is stretched and power is regained. Not only is the commonest cause of hamstring injury an unrehabilitated prior tear, but a weak hamstring muscle also predisposes knee injury.

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Disclaimer

All content within sports injury insurance is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. Sports injury insurance is not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based on the content of the injury centre. Always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health.