Sports Medicine Corner with Danny Murphy, C.S.C.S.

ANKLE SPRAINS

Ankle sprains are common injuries in sport but can easily happen to anyone. All it takes is one wrong step off a curb or landing the wrong way on your foot. Your ankle rolls, twists, or turns in some awkward direction and you’ve done it. You just sprained your ankle.

There are different kinds of ankle sprains depending on the direction your ankle rolls. We will look at the most common- inversion ankle sprains. An inversion ankle sprain happens when your foot rolls inward further and faster than the body can tolerate causing damage to tissues on the outside (or lateral) aspect of the foot.

The tissues that are most often damaged during a sprain are the ligaments. In fact, the word “sprain” should always refer to ligament damage. The word “strain” refers to muscle damage. These terms are often confused and used interchangeably.

There are three levels of ankle sprain listed in order of severity and ranked by degrees. A first degree, or mild ankle sprain, involves stretching of the surrounding ligaments. A second degree, or moderate ankle sprain, involves a partial tearing of the ligaments. The third degree, or severe ankle sprain, involves a complete tear or rupture of a ligament and can even involve an avulsion fracture (the ligament pulls off a piece of the bone). Ouch! It is common to have muscle strains around the ankle as a secondary injury to sprain.

Symptoms of an inversion ankle sprain include pain and swelling along the front and outside of the ankle. With a second or third degree sprain, many people may report hearing or feeling a “pop”. Pain and swelling will increase with the seriousness of the sprain although sometimes there is no pain with a complete tear because the nerve has been severed.

Early treatment for an ankle sprain is to ice immediately for 15-20 minutes every hour until swelling is controlled. If the injury causes you to lump, crutches may be recommended. However, if your ankle is hurt to this degree you should go see a doctor to have the injury properly diagnosed. A third degree sprain can involve a bone fracture and will most likely involve x-rays, crutches and possibly even a walking cast.

Rehabilitation of the ankle should start by restoring range of motion when pain and swelling allow. Once range of motion has returned to normal, balance and strengthening exercises can be added to the rehab program in order to prepare the ankle for daily activities and eventually sports.

The best thing you can do for an ankle sprain is to prevent it from happening. A well designed lower body workout that involves balance and stabilization at the ankle joint will train the ankle to deal with the forces involved during a sprain and may even allow the body to react before injury occurs.