by Steve Lilley

Created on: February 24, 2007   Last Updated: January 15, 2008

Ankle sprains the number one injury that occurs in sport world wide. Their are two types of ankle sprain, the inversion sprain, where the ankle rolls inwards and an eversion sprain where the ankle roles outward. The inversion sprain is the most common of the two. Their are then three types of sprain, ranging from grade 1 a stretching of ligaments up to grade three with a complete rupture of at least one ligament. The inside of the ankle is made up of 3 ligaments which are classed as the deltoid ligaments and a number of ligaments on the outside and front of the ankle making up the lateral ligament formation.

The treatment that is most commonly given for ankle sprains is rice. The rest helps the recovery, (don't complete bed rest but reduced weight bearing). The icing helps to reduce the pain and increase the blood flow. The compression helps reduce the swelling and support the ankle joint. The elevation also helps to reduce the swelling. The icing should be performed for about 10 minutes at least three times a day, meal times can be the most convenient times to ice.

Ultrasound is very good for helping the healing process, along with gentle joint mobilizing movement, like the flexing and extending the ankle joint, and rotation work. For over 100 hundred year physiotherapist have been using ankle taping methods to reduce the occurrence but also to help aid ankle sprain recovery time, by helping to strengthen the ankle joint. Once the ankle does not cause pain, all the swelling and bruising has gone you may feel that the ankle is now back to full strength, but this is very wrong and leads to the ankle becoming very injury prone due to a lack of joint stability.

The joint stability requires the stability to retrained. This has to be trained by standing on the injured foot, with eyes both open and closed. The more stable you become at this the benefit of a tramp-et helps with it's un-even platform to complete the stability retraining. Helping the ankle to understand when it is level and when it is not.

No responsibility will be taken for any problems created due to the carrying out of the treatment above, with out my supervision.

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