What is a Sprained Ankle?

A sprained ankle occurs when your ankle ligaments are overstretched. Ankle sprains vary in their severity, from mild “twisted ankle” or”rolled ankle” sprain through to severe complete ligament ruptures, avulsion fractures or broken bones.

What Causes a Sprained Ankle?

Ankle sprains can occur simply by rolling your ankle or some unstable ground. Common examples of this occur when awkwardly planting your foot when running,landing unbalanced from a jump or stepping onto an irregular surface.

What are the Symptoms of a Sprained Ankle?

A history of your ankle rolling is the key ingredient to suspecting a sprained ankle. At the time of the injury you may hear a popping or cracking soundand will notice swelling, bruising and ankle pain. Lateral or medial ligament sprains are usually acutely tender over the injured ligament.

Depending on the severity of your ankle sprain, you may have trouble walking or standing on your foot. In these cases, crutches, strapping or awalking boot may be necessary to help you to mobilise throughout the day.

In more severe cases, there may be sharp pain deep in the ankle joint associated with a talar dome fracture or pain between your lower shin bones, whichmay be a syndesmosis or high ankle sprain.

How is a Sprained Ankle Diagnosed?

If required, you may be referred for a X-ray, CT scan or MRI to confirm or exclude specific ligament or bone injuries.

Which Ankle Ligaments are Commonly Sprained?

Your ankle joint, known as thetalo-crural joint,is made up of three bones: the tibia (shin bone – inside ankle bone), fibula(outer lower leg – outside ankle bone) and talus (deep ankle bone).

Underneath the talo-crural joint lies the subtalar joint, whichis the articulation between the talus and the calcaneus (heel bone).

Your ankle ligaments attach from bone to bone and passively limit the motion available at each joint.

On the outside of the ankle lie the lateral ligaments, which are the most frequently injured in an ankle sprain. These include the:

The main medial (inside of ankle) ligament is the much stronger deltoid ligament.

High ankle sprains involve the inferior tibio fibular ligament and syndesmosis.These are more disabling ankle injuries and are often misdiagnosed as the more simple sprained ankle.

Unfortunately, a sprained ankle can increase your risk of re-injury as much as 40-70%, but the correct post-injury rehabilitation exercises significantly decreases the risk.

There are essential treatment aimsthat need to be covered to effectively rehabilitate your sprained ankle and prevent recurrence.

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