Current Research for Ankle Sprain Recovery
Ankle sprains are one of the most common sports injuries. If you watched the Super Bowl, you saw Patrick Mahomes in agony due to an ankle sprain. This injury can be very painful and sometimes hard to heal. There is also a lot of misconception on the best way to heal it.
A sprain of any kind means that a joint was overstretched causing a tear in one or more ligaments. Ligaments exist around every joint to prevent the joint from extending past its normal range of motion. An ankle sprain can either be an inversion or eversion sprain. Inversion is when the bottom of the foot is facing toward the other foot. This type of sprain injures the lateral ligaments, or the ligaments on the outer side of the ankle. Eversion is the opposite of this. The bottom of the foot is facing away from the other foot and therefore injures the medial ligaments, or the ligaments on the inner side of the ankle.
There are also three different severities of sprains. This is based on a grading scale one through three. Grade 1 is a minor sprain. This means there is a minor stretch of a single ligament causing minor damage to the ligament fibers. Grade 1 sprains have mild swelling, some tenderness over the joint but no bruising. There may be mild pain but hardly any to no limping or loss of function. A grade 2 sprain is when there is partial tearing of the ligament. The symptoms of a grade 2 sprain include bruising on one side of the ankle, moderate swelling, a limp and more pain. Grade 3 sprains are the most severe. This is when there is a complete tear of the ligaments. There will be more bruising, swelling on both sides of the ankle, instability of the joint and it is difficult to bear weight on that foot. A fracture needs to be ruled out for a grade 3 sprain.
When it comes to healing this injury, it was often believed that RICE was the best protocol. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compress and Elevate. This has been proven to be an ineffective treatment protocol. However, it is still believed to be the best treatment by the general population. If you google search treatment for ankle sprains, that is what you will get for the search results even though it is not the most effective. Once you search for scholarly articles and speak with evidence based health professionals, they will tell you that that method will not give you the quickest recovery. Using the RICE method decreases the natural healing process that the body uses to cure the injury. The current research states that the patient should start getting movement into the ankle as soon as possible. There is no need to immobilize the ankle. It is okay to rest the ankle but getting non weight bearing ankle exercises such as ankle circles right away will help speed up the recovery process. Once the ankle is ready to start bearing weight, the patient should start working on balance and stability exercises. These exercises should be advanced and continued until the ankle is fully functional again. It is so important to fully rehab the ankle in order to prevent a re-injury in the future. If you are dealing with an ankle sprain or another sports injury, come into Focus On Health Chiropractic and the Movement Lab and we’ll help rehab your injury.
Resources:
Kerkhoffs GM, Rowe BH, Assendelft WJ, Kelly KD, Struijs PA, van Dijk CN. Immobilisation and functional treatment for acute lateral ankle ligament injuries in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2002;3: CD003762.
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/patrick-mahomes-injury-update-ankle-super-bowl-57/gydkmrkv4awng6eqkt1smysx