Sprain vs strain

Last revised by Yuranga Weerakkody on 3 May 2023

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Gaillard F, Weerakkody Y, Batta N, et al. Sprain vs strain. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 23 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-10927

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-10927

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/10927

rID:

10927

Article created:

2 Oct 2010, Frank Gaillard ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Frank Gaillard had no recorded disclosures.

View Frank Gaillard's current disclosures

Last revised:

3 May 2023, Yuranga Weerakkody ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Yuranga Weerakkody had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Yuranga Weerakkody's current disclosures

Revisions:

5 times, by 4 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Musculoskeletal

Tags:

definition, rewrite

As petty as it sounds, medicine (and especially radiology) is all about precision in the terminology we use. Sprain and strain are often used interchangeably and often (randomly) incorrectly.

sprain refers to injury of ligaments.
strain refers to injury of muscles and tendons. A simple aide-mémoire is that strain has a 't' as does tendon, and that muscles are attached to tendons.