Why did my second uncle become disabled after taking an injection? Many people had this injection when they were young.

A short video titled "After returning to the village for three days, my second uncle cured my mental exhaustion" released by the UP host "Yige Guess" became a hot search as soon as it was released, and firmly occupied the first place in the hot search.

So far, it has received more than 30 million views and 62,000 comments, with countless "Second Uncles" in real life and people sighing for the Second Uncle in the video in front of the screen.

From my second uncle, we see countless people of this nation, and we see all the ordinariness, beauty and strength of this nation.

My second uncle went from being a genius boy in the village to a genius old man after going through many ups and downs. It is a pity, lament and respect. His transformation from a genius boy to a disabled person may be due to the injection in the buttocks.

So today let’s discuss with you why injections may cause disability.

01

Causes of disability caused by injections

My second uncle came home with a fever while in school. At that time, medical conditions were not well developed. For my second uncle's family, the solution to the child's fever was to find a barefoot doctor in the village. The common method used by barefoot doctors to deal with this situation was the buttocks injection described in the opening video, and many of them were penicillin.

Although buttock injections are rare now, they were a very common treatment method at that time, including when I was a child. When I heard about injections, I meant buttock injections. (I guess many people who have had buttock injections have a deep impression of them~)

At the time when my second uncle was there, the needles and syringes used for buttock injections could be repeatedly steamed and sterilized. When giving buttock injections, the needle needs to be inserted vertically into the muscle 2.5-3 cm, which is equivalent to the length of a finger joint (you read that right, it is quite deep...), so that the needle can pierce the skin, pass through the thick fat to the muscle layer, and push the medicine in the syringe into it.

Injections into the buttocks like this are likely to cause gluteal muscle contracture and sciatic nerve damage .

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Gluteal muscle contracture is a disease caused by muscle degeneration and contraction due to ischemia or drug stimulation of the gluteal muscles due to increased pressure around the muscles. It is usually caused by repeated injections of drugs into the gluteal muscles. Most cases of this disease occur in children and adolescents.

As mentioned earlier, many patients were improperly injected with penicillin during the buttocks injection. This caused fibrosis of the gluteus maximus or gluteus medius and their fascia, turning them into a tendon-like structure. This impaired the movement of the patient's hip joint and affected the patient's walking, squatting and other activities.

Image source: pexels

In addition to gluteal muscle contracture, another very serious injury is sciatic nerve damage.

The sciatic nerve is the thickest and longest nerve in our body, with a diameter of about 1 cm. It runs from the lumbar spinal cord to the feet, controlling a large number of muscles such as the hamstrings, calf muscles, and foot muscles. It is easy to imagine the consequences of sciatic nerve damage.

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Disability caused by injections may also be due to sciatic nerve damage caused by buttock injections. There are many patients who have suffered sciatic nerve damage due to buttock injections. When we search for sciatic nerve damage due to intramuscular injections as keywords on CNKI, we will find many related articles.

So, why does buttocks muscle injection, also known as buttocks injection, cause sciatic nerve damage?

Firstly, the buttock injection itself may directly cause nerve damage. When the injection site is inappropriate and directly pierces the nerve trunk, the sciatic nerve will be damaged, mainly the axonal damage (if the injector injects at an improper position, it will increase the chance of sciatic nerve injury; in addition, some children twisting during the injection process may also cause the injection site to be too close to the sciatic nerve).

Secondly, if the injection site is correct, a large amount of drugs will infiltrate the nerve trunk in the intermuscular space. Some drugs are highly acidic or alkaline, which are quite irritating. Infiltration of nerve trunks will cause nerve fiber degeneration and damage to nerves, mainly myelin sheaths. Of course, when the dose is too large, it will also cause sciatic nerve damage to patients.

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It may also be due to local swelling after injection, compressing the sciatic nerve, or highly irritating drugs damaging the muscles, forming local scar tissue, pulling or compressing the sciatic nerve, and causing injury.

Therefore, it is possible that my second uncle’s leg was disabled because of the injection in the buttocks. (However, we cannot completely confirm that it was caused by the injection in the buttocks, after all, it is difficult to verify it because it was so long ago. Many doctors said that it could also be due to polio.)

For patients who have already suffered sciatic nerve damage, it is very difficult to repair the sciatic nerve damage.

The repair of sciatic nerve injury is a very complex pathophysiological process. Moreover, due to the slow speed of nerve regeneration, edema and adhesion of surrounding tissues, and muscle atrophy, the treatment of sciatic nerve injury is difficult and has limited efficacy. At present, clinical and experimental studies on the treatment of sciatic nerve injury include drug therapy, physical therapy, surgical treatment, gene therapy, and combined therapy.

Image source: pexels

02

The number of cases where sequelae caused by buttock injections is decreasing

With the progress and development of medical care, we can find that buttock muscle injection, which is the buttock injection mentioned above, is rarely used now. During treatment, doctors can choose many other methods of administration, such as inhalation, intravenous drip, rectal administration, etc.

In addition, even if a buttocks injection is needed, modern medical staff are strictly trained, so generally speaking, situations like the UP host's second uncle will not occur again. (The gradual replacement of buttocks injections has also made many people feel relieved. After all, buttocks injections are really painful and socially deadly~)

Therefore, today, everyone does not need to worry too much. With the development of medicine and science and technology, experiences like my second uncle's will never happen again.

Finally, there are some situations where buttock injections are indeed necessary. Don't resist. Buttock injections are safe if performed in a standardized manner.

END

Review expert: Wang Linjue, deputy chief physician of the Department of Orthopedics, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Tadpole Musical Notation original article, please indicate the source when reprinting

Editor/Heart and Paper