Inversion Ankle Sprain

August 23, 2009, Cindy Tan, Senior Physiotherapist

The ankle is one of the most common sites for acute musculoskeletal injuries accounting for 75 percent of ankle injuries. Among athletes, ankle sprains are the most common injury yet they are so often mistreated or not treated at all. A consequence of this neglect is a lasting weakness, an unstable joint and repeated sprains. This article will look at the most common ankle injury and its acute management.

Inversion Sprain
Inversion ankle sprains occur when the foot turns in or out to an abnormal degree relative to the ankle. The most common mechanism of an ankle sprain is a combination of plantarflexion and inversion where the foot is pointing downward and inward. The following video is an example of that.

Lateral Ligaments

The lateral ligaments are involved in an inversion ankle sprain and hence most commonly damaged. These ligaments are on the outside of the ankle, which includes the anterior talofibular (ATFL), calcaneofibular (CFL) and posterior talofibular ligaments (PTFL). Injury to the ATFL is the most common. When both the ATFL and CFL are injured together, ankle instability will be more noticeable. The PTFL is the strongest of the three ligaments and is rarely injured in an inversion sprain.

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source: Flickr – Northcoast Footcare and Core Concepts

Sprain = Overstretched ligaments
Ligaments are like tough rubber bands that help to provide stability to the any joint by limiting movement. When one or more ligaments is stretched beyond the normal range, a sprain results.

Ankle sprains range in severity from Grade I to Grade III and is useful for more than classifying the severity of the injury; it also directs treatment and prognosis.

Grade Signs & Symptoms
Grade 1 Ankle sprains are painful, but they have no increased laxity when compared with the uninjured side. This correlates with mild stretching of the ATFL.
Grade II Ankle sprains are painful and have an increased laxity on testing. This correlates with a complete tear of the ATFL and a partial tear of the CFL.
Grade III Ankle sprains are usually painful and have an unstable ankle joint on examination. This correlates with complete ruptures of both the ATFL and CFL.

Causes

Common causes of ankle sprains include stepping up or down on an uneven surface, particularly when wearing high heels; stepping wrong off a curb or into a hole. In athletics, common causes include landing wrongly after a jump shot and having to make quick directional changes as in tennis, soccer, and netball.

In essence, when the ligaments and muscles are not able to support the joint at a certain position, the ankle gives way. This is why training the muscles is very important when ligaments are “loose” or overstretched.

Management
Treatment and rehabilitation starts the moment you have sprained your ankle. It is recommended that you start the R.I.C.E.R regime as soon as possible after the injury. An anti-inflammatory drug may be recommended and crutches provided for a few days if the ankle is too painful to bear weight.

Immobilisation using a brace or a cast can provide the injured ligaments with the rest they need to heal and reduces the risk of aggravating the injury. However, immobilisation should not be prolonged and must be followed within a week by exercises that prevent joint stiffness and muscle wasting.

Related posts:

  1. How to prevent ankle sprains from happening … again
  2. If I have an ankle sprain, should I have an X-ray taken?
  3. Train Proprioception to Prevent Sprains
  4. Wrist Sprain – a common wrist injury
  5. Eccentric ankle evertor muscle strengthening is better than concentric strengthening after a lateral ankle sprain


Creative Commons License
This work by Musculoskeletal Consumer Review is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Singapore License. This article was contributed by Core Concepts - Musculoskeletal Healthcare Group. In the spirit of promoting health education, you may copy, distribute and transmit the work under the conditions specified by the license. For articles re-printed with permission, copyright remains with the original copyright holder (author or publisher). MCR's Creative Commons License does not apply in such cases.


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