What is a chronic injury?

A chronic injury is an injury that has either developed slowly over a long peiod of time, or an accute injury that fails to heal fully. Some examples of a slow developing injury is carpal tunnel syndrome. This impairment of the median nerve causes numbness and tingling in the first three fingers on the hand. It can be an accute injury-a blow to the median nerve can cause damage, but most often it is an inflamation of the muscles around it, which then compress the nerve. This generally does not happen overnight. It usually takes months of repetative motion, or multiple injuries to bring about the symptoms. An example of an accute injury devolving into a chronic one, is a scar from surgury that continues to bother for years.