How to prevent long-term complications from ankle sprains
Ankle sprains are the most common traumatic lower limb injury suffered by Americans today. The rates are high across all ages as most people are not immune to sustaining this type of injury. If not treated properly, ankle sprains can often lead to the development of long-term complications.
Ankle sprains often lead to long-term complications as people tend to take a light-hearted approach to rehabbing and strengthening the ankle after injury. Since sprains are common and often mild, many people shrug off the seriousness of the injury. If an ankle sprain is not taken care of quickly and appropriately, it can often lead to chronic pain, ankle instability, and recurring sprains.
Here are the reasons why it only takes one ankle sprain to lead to long-term issues:
Not enough care or time: when people incur ankle sprains, they often do not give themselves enough time to properly heal. In some cases, people often try to play through the injury further aggravating the injury.
Coming back too soon: When people choose to come back too quickly, the ligaments never completely heal.
When an ankle sprain is incurred, here are our recommendations to contain the injury:
Decrease pain and swelling: this should be your first goal to protect the ligaments from further injury. We recommend adopting the classic RICE regimen (rest, ice, compression and elevation). If you have severe pain and swelling, rest your ankle for as long as you can within the first 24-48 hours.
Medical Evaluation: If the injury is not improving, we recommend contacting a foot specialist such as a podiatrist. A podiatrist will typically examine the ankle and foot and may manipulate them in various ways to determine the type of sprain and the extent of injury. He/she will aim to identify areas of the foot where pain, tenderness, and inability to bear weight suggest a fracture.
Functional Treatment: in order to recover fully from the ankle sprain, you will need to restore a normal range of motion to your ankle joint and strengthen its ligaments and supporting muscles. We would recommend prioritizing treatments that restore ankle function and utilize splints, braces, taping and elastic bandages to accelerate the process.
As you start to gain your range-of-motion and stretching exercises within the first 48 hours, you should continue to rehabilitate until you are pain-free. Should you have any questions, please contact our team here to set up an appointment online, by email at info@riverpodiatry.com or by phone at (845) 735-8440.
