What occurs immediately after a ligament injury?

Immediately following a ligament injury, the most significant event is typically the loss of blood from damaged vessels. When ligaments sustain injury, they often tear or experience significant strain, leading to the disruption of small blood vessels within the ligament. This disruption causes bleeding at the injury site, resulting in immediate hematoma formation. The body responds to this injury by initiating a complex healing response that will include inflammation and subsequent tissue repair processes.

It's critical to understand that while scar tissue formation, vascular proliferation, and increase in collagen density occur later in the healing process, they are not the very first responses to the injury. Instead, the initial phase following an acute ligament injury is marked primarily by the immediate vascular response and bleeding due to damaged blood vessels, which then lays the groundwork for subsequent healing phases.