Sprained ankle: It’s a common occurrence for most people to experience a bit of discomfort in their ankle while walking. This can often be due to an unusual twist or turn that puts more strain on the leg than it can handle. Such movements can cause harm to the ankle’s ligaments. These ligaments are essential, as they are the structures that keep the bones of the ankle connected. When strained, they can even rupture, leading to more severe discomfort and injury.
The tissue helps to keep the bones together due to which our joint works and move properly. A little bit of tear in a ligament can lead to disturbance in the motion of the entire portion. The sprained ankle mostly happens when the tissue and bones go beyond that particular motion. The sprained ankle can be both internally that is a ligament tear or externally that a twist in a bone structure.
Few symptoms relate to a sprained ankle.
The symptoms differ from person to person depending upon how severe the pain is. Sometimes the twist in the ankle heals with hours and sometimes it takes days so the basic symptoms might be the same but the severity level can be different.
- Pain, especially when you bear weight on the affected foot
- Tenderness when you touch the ankle
- Swelling
- Bruising
- Restricted range of motion
- Instability in the ankle
- Popping sensation or sound at the time of injury
If the severity of the symptoms increases then the pain might be equal to that of breaking the bone. In adult’s the sprain in the ankle is common but in children’s also the sprained ankle is caused due to some minute reasons such as
- uneven walking
- jumping
- pain in ankle
- Changes in every level of walking.
- Sometimes due to tenderness in the bones, there might be a fracture in the bones of the baby.
Causes:
As discussed earlier sprained ankle is a condition which is commonly occurred when the whole ankle gets twisted or there’s a tear in a ligament. Some basic causes can also be reason such as
1. Falling
Sprains often result from falls, which are a major cause of such injuries. Interestingly, the height from which a person falls isn’t the only determinant of the injury’s severity. If someone plummets from a considerable elevation, it’s likely the subsequent joint twist will cause more discomfort than a fall from a lesser height. It’s also important to note that incidences during physical activities, such as running or exercising, are also classified under falls, further expanding the range of potential scenarios.
2. Overuse
The overuse of the ankle can be another major reason why people tend to get the sprained ankle. In overuse, there belongs a lot of leg work and less resting due to which at the end of the day all the pressure gets on the ankle and it starts getting sore and causes pain.
3. Previous ankle sprain
An ankle sprain is of many types some of them are acute while some of them are having a huge impact on the entire leg. The acute ankle sprain is a minute ankle sprain that can easily be recovered within 2 3 hours but what if is not properly healed and people are still putting the same amount of pressure on the ankle which indeed causes a severe ankle sprain.
Treatments and medication:
Treating an ankle sprain is sometimes easy and quite difficult at the same time because sometimes a little ice pack can heal the swelling and pain of the ankle but sometimes that same ankle sprain can last for 3 4 days which will be very dangerous to handle.
1. RICE protocol
Rest, ice, compression, and elevations. In the RICE protocol, one should rest his or her ankle for a while applying some ice over it because ice helps in reducing the swelling then followed by compression and elevations over the respective ankle.
2. Exercise
The exercise will stretch the respective muscles such as ankle circles, toe raises, or heel raises. After the surgery of the ankle sprain, the doctors usually suggest performing some minute exercise to keep the blood flowing and prevent it from swelling.
3. Medication
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen can ease pain and reduce swelling.
Few respective Medicines for ankle sprain are:
- ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others)
- naproxen sodium (Aleve, others)
- acetaminophen (Tylenol)
Recovery regarding ankle sprain:
The ankle sprain can be of different types the phases of the ankle sprain are categorized into grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3.
- The grade 1: might take few weeks to heal say 1 to 3 weeks.
- The grade 2: might take 3 to 5 weeks to heal.
- The grade 3: might take few months to heal.
Conclusion:
To summarize, an affliction commonly referred to as a sprain can occur to individuals exhibiting improper gait patterns. Neglecting such a sprain could potentially lead to irreversible damage to the joint between the foot and the leg, making it paramount that medical advice be sought even in instances of seemingly minor sprains.
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