PT Health Life – Ankle sprain occurs when there is a stretch or tear of the ligament due to injury. It is most common in people who have to work hard or regularly play sports. The patient will feel pain and have difficulty walking.
1. Degrees of sprains
Sprains are one of the common cases, sometimes not serious injuries but just accidentally missing a step can cause an ankle sprain to occur. The degree of sprain is divided into 3 specific levels as follows:
Mild sprain in the ankle. Occurs when there is an impact force but not too great, just enough to cause a slight ligament stretch. At this time, you will see a small swelling appear on your ankle along with a slight feeling of pain.
With more severe cases, the ankle ligaments are more likely to be torn or partially torn. Patients will see swelling and large bruises. At this time, standing up or walking will be difficult.
If it is severe, the ligaments in your ankle will be completely torn. This will cause the ankle to swell and bruises to appear large. Standing up will cause extreme pain and the ankle will not be able to stand.
2. Typical symptoms of ankle sprain
When an ankle sprain is evident, the symptoms are ankle pain, swelling, difficulty moving the ankle joint, and difficulty walking. The reason is that impact on the ankle joint causes damage to the ligaments around the joint area. At the same time, a sprained ankle makes a cracking sound like when cracking a knuckle. Bruises and swelling depend on the level of pressure. Dull pain, discomfort in the sprained area and difficulty walking.
3. What to do when you have an ankle sprain and how to prevent recurrence?
Sprain symptoms often come on quickly, and some people heal on their own over time. However, a large portion of cases lead to persistent problems such as increased laxity, long-term pain, and a risk of re-injury of up to 70%.
- The correct treatment is to immediately immobilize the ankle joint with a splint at the moment of injury.
- Limit pressure on painful legs. Crutches can be used to assist with walking.
- To reduce pain, you can apply an ice pack to the painful swollen area several times after injury, for 10 – 20 minutes each time in the first 24 – 72 hours.
- To immobilize the damaged area, you can use an elastic bandage to gently compress the ankle for the first 24 – 36 hours.
- Sit or lie with your feet elevated for 2-3 hours a day. This will help with swelling and bruising. In case of severe pain, you can use anti- inflammatory pain relievers as prescribed by your doctor.
- Absolutely do not massage with hot oil, alcohol, or apply salt, because it will cause more bruising and the ligaments will not heal well.
When swelling and pain reduce after about 5-7 days, recovery must be done immediately. The training program includes 3 main parts:
- Regain range of motion and flexibility of the joint: gently bend and stretch the ankle. Practice bending your ankles inward and outward. Do exercises to stretch the gastrocnemius and heel tendons.
- Regain ankle strength: After range of motion reaches 60 – 70%, exercise ankle tendon strength: kick with weights, or stretch rubber bands…
- Balance training: After the range of motion and ankle strength is almost complete, practice balance exercises such as standing with one leg on the painful leg, jumping rope…
Note : Ankle sprains are a common problem in daily life, work, and sports such as: playing tennis, badminton, football, dancing and wearing high heels… Therefore, when a sprain is discovered, The ankle needs to go to a medical facility for examination and treatment. When patients have symptoms of an ankle sprain, depending on the severity, they have different treatments.
When the ankle swelling stops and pain stops when moving; The range of motion, flexibility and strength of the ankle is almost normal. If there are still symptoms such as pain, swelling and a feeling of looseness in the ankle joint, you should go to the hospital for advice on surgical treatment.
Most cases of ankle sprains can be treated at home without surgery.
