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What is Ankle Sprain and How to Treat Sprained Foot?

A sprained ankle is a kind of injury which can occur when you roll, twist or turn your ankle in a sudden or an awkward way. During the injury the ligaments which help in stabilizing the joints and preventing the excessive movement can be forced beyond the normal range or motion.

But here it’s worth noting that what is the prevalence of Ankle sprain? According to a report it was found that 30% of sports injuries consist of sprained ankles, and it’s one of the foremost musculoskeletal injuries. Mostly sports people including athletes and non athletes seek utmost medical care and precautions for ankle sprains. Here in the topic we will discuss a little bit of ankle sprain exercises, sprained ankle grades, causes, prevention, and sign and symptoms.

Causes of Ankle Sprain

An ankle sprain is mainly caused by the instantaneously foot twist or rolls, which force the ankle joint to out from the normal position. While performing few physical activities such as sports, weightlifting or running, the ankle may be twisted inward. Which further can lead to ligaments around the ankle to stretch or tear.

Because of these stretches and tears there could be some swelling and bruising. The person suffering from ankle sprain can feel pain and discomfort. And the blood vessels, cartilages and tendons might rupture due to this.

However, there are several risk factors associated which may cause sprained ankle

• Sports participation.
• Irregular surfaces
• Past ankle injury
• Bad physical condition

Complications

If ankle sprain is not treated well, then it can lead to many complications and these may include the long-term and short impacts. If we go into the comprehensive analysis we find that ankle instability,  arthritis, and ankle pain might happen. Where the chronicle sprained ankles may lead to instability of the ankle. And each ankle sprain can be the cause of joint damage of joints.

Signs and Symptoms of Sprained Ankle

There are several signs and symptoms of sprained ankle which are pain, swelling, bruising, tenderness, and restriction in the motion.

3 Grades of Ankle Sprains

The ankle sprains can range from minor to severe, and classified under the three grades which is totally based upon the amount of damage.

Grade 1: The ankle will feel a little bit sore and swollen, where the ligaments are overstretched but not torn.

Grade 2:  The ligaments are partially torn, and might be the cause of long term pain and swelling. The patient may suffer from the problem of putting his entire weight on the ankle. You may also notice the bruising, however due the tear there could be bleeding under your skin.

Grade 3: In this category, the ankle ligaments suffer a lot, and get full tear.  A popping sound would be heard, and the level of pain, swelling and bruising will be intense.

Prevention To prevent the ankle pain injury we will have to keep focus on certain areas.

• Get a mild warm up exercise before you go for any strenuous physical activity or play sports.
• Keep a close on the surface where you are going for walk, run or work on uneven surfaces.
• In case having the past ankle injury then be attentive to use ankle support brace or tape on the affected areas
• The shoes must be well fitted and should be according to sports activity
• Must avoid the high heel shoes.
• You must do the exercises which may strengthen or provide flexibility to muscles.
• Training can be  good choice before proceeding to any sport

Diagnosis of Sprained ankle

Diagnosis of sprained ankle involves the the physical examination of the ankle, foot and lower leg. Where this may involve imagining techniques to trace out the broken bones. This may include the x-ray, MRI,CT scan and ultrasound.

X-ray is perfect to find out the fractured bones, where MRI uses radio waves and a strong magnet field to trace out the 3D images of soft internal structure

Ankle Sprain Treatment

There are several treatments available for ankle sprain which entirely depend upon the severity of injury. The objective of the ankle sprain treatment is to reduce the swelling and pain, and to promote the faster healing of the ligament. Meanwhile it’s used for restoring the function of the ankle.  If the injury is of high severity then you may be referred to a specialist so called physician or orthopedic surgeon.

Here, over the counter pain relievers, ibuprofen and  naproxen sodium are good for reducing the pain of a sprained ankle. After the reduction of the pain and swelling, you may go for the physical therapy where Range-of-motion, balance and control exercises strengthening  and stretching exercises are good enough. Finally, surgery becomes mandatory if the ankle remains unstable for a long period of time, and therapy and exercises are ineffective to treat the ankle sprain.

Ankle sprain exercises

There are at least 15 types of ankle sprain exercises and broadly classified under the following categories.

• range of motion
• stretching
• strengthening
• balance and control

Range of motion

• Ankle alphabet
• Knee motion
• Towel and tissue scrunches

Ankle stretching exercises

• Towel stretch
• Standing calf stretch
• Heel raise
• One-leg balance

Ankle strengthening exercises

• Elastic band push
• Ankle out
• Ankle In

Ankle balance and control exercises

• Basic Balance
• Balance with eyes closed
• Pillow balance
• Pillow balanced with eyes closed

We at ANODYNE SPINE CLINIC assess the grade of the condition and plan a treatment accordingly. Individualised  exercise programmes according to a patient’s strength , endurance, and stability is prescribed. Stabilising exercises of Ankle and calf are made to be done by patient to boost the healing process and relax the overly tort ligament.

Usage of advanced technology cannot be discarded to get optimum results hence, Toning machines along with simulators are used to get better and fast results !