Healthy Life
What treatments are available to you when you have an ankle sprain?"
by Matthieu Van Reet
You've just sprained your ankle and are wondering what therapeutic options are available to you?
If the Ottawa Criteria have ruled out any risk of fracture, a recent study has attempted to clarify what choices are available to you when you've just injured your ankle.
Researchers conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature to analyze the treatments for acute lateral ankle sprains, focusing only on randomized clinical trials.
They sought to answer three important clinical questions:
- Is there a difference in outcomes between surgical and non-surgical treatment of sprains?
- Is there evidence in favor of a specific type of external support for conservative treatment?
- Are there differences between rehabilitation protocols for conservative treatment?
Results:
The majority of studies showed that conservative treatment was as effective as surgical treatment, with fewer complications. Regarding external support devices, it was not possible to determine the best one, but soft devices (like aircast) seem to allow a quicker return to daily activities. As for rehabilitation, there is no clear consensus on the best protocol but it is clearly essential.
Conclusions:
The results suggest that conservative treatment is often preferable for sprains without fractures.
For rehabilitation, there are no specific protocols, but management based on exercises for gradual reloading and subsequently adapted to sports movements, seems quite appropriate.
Additional studies are needed to better guide you during your care, given the continual advancement of medicine.
Indeed, we cannot predict the surgical techniques that will be practiced in the future, but for the time being, physiotherapy is the answer designated for this type of
pathology.”
SOURCES:
European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences
Evidence-based treatment choices for acute lateral ankle sprain: a comprehensive
systematic D. ALTOMARE1,2, G. FUSCO1,2, E. BERTOLINO1, R. RANIERI1,2, C. SCONZA1,2,
M. LIPINA3, E. KON1,2, M. MARCACCI1,2, L. BIANCHINI1, B. DI MATTEO2,3
1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Pieve Emanuele, Milan, Italy
2 IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano (MI), Italy
3 Department of Traumatology, Orthopaedics and Disaster Surgery, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), Moscow, Russia
We care U perform
