Ankle sprain VS Broken Ankle

Ankle Sprain VS Broken Ankle

Ankle fractures and Sprain are two different entities. Ankle injuries are by far one of the commonest orthopedic injuries. It’s very common because as you walk you might just twist your ankle and that can lead to an injury. This injury can be a sprain or a fracture.

What is a sprain?

A sprain is an injury to the ligament. A sprain occurs when one or more of your ligaments has been stretched twisted or torn.

 

What is a ligament?

The ligament is a connective tissue that connects two bones which form a joint. Two bones form a joint and a connecting tissue that runs from the other bone to this bone is called a ligament.

 

Sprain VS Broken bone

So when the ligament gets injured so that is called a sprain. The bone which it is connecting breaks you call a fracture (broken bone). So there are two different entities that can happen for a similar type of injury.

 

Sprain-VS-Fracture

 

For example, when you’re walking you know your ankle might just twist and might have a fault. This can lead to either a ligament injury or a bony injury.

Bony injury is a fracture and a ligament injury is a sprain. So depending on which is the injury your recorded period, will be accordingly.

Also Read: Types of Bone Fractures: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

 

How much time does it take Sprain to recover?

It is recommended you should stop using a sprained joint because the injury will heal quicker. If you begin to move it as soon as possible, but avoid overusing it.

So a sprain generally takes three to five weeks to heal by the end of six weeks you should be able to walk normally and do most of your activates as you would be doing earlier.

A total recovery period meaning the internal healing may take another six weeks. So a total of about two and a half to three months it will heal completely.

Also Read: Ankle Sprain Symptoms, 3-grade Classification, & Treatment

 

How much time does it take a fracture to recover?

A fracture will take a longer time to heal because a bone to bone healing or bone to the bone union will take a longer time to happen.

So the healing period is a minimum of six to eight weeks and the further recovery will be another one and a half to two months to get your complete moment to do all your activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ankle Sprain

Ankle Sprain: Symptoms, 3 grade Classification, & Treatment

In this article, today we are going to talk about an Ankle sprain.

I have covered the anatomy first and then what actually happening when an ankle sprain happens? And then why it happens? And how to prevent the ankle sprain?

Anatomy of a Sprain: (What is Ankle Sprain?)

 

Your ankle functions as a hinge joint. The unique design makes it a very stable joint.

Ankle stability is crucial because your ankle has to support half of your body weight when you walk and up to eight times your body weight when you run.

Normal ankle function is essential in walking, running, and jumping. Your ankle stability is supported by the muscles, tendons, and ligaments surrounding your joints.

First of all, we have a bone that’s called Tibia. Alongside it, on the outside, we have a bone called Fibula. And sitting in the middle of both of these bones is a bone called the talus. Hooked on the talus is the rest of the foot and ankle.

Sprains are injuries to ligaments that cause overstretching or tearing. These ligaments are responsible for connecting the bones. Ankle sprains are common injuries that happen to patients like young and old.

Sprains of these ligaments usually occur when your ankle is twisted or turned in.

Depending on your injury, the ligaments can be either partially or completely torn.

 

What are the most common causes of ankle sprains?

 

The most common causes of ankle sprains are typically injuries with athletes and people who are walking on uneven surfaces.

The most common ankle sprain that people see is often one where the ankle rolls inwards and it causes tearing or stretching of the ligaments on the outside of the ankle.

 

Ankle sprains could be classified in two ways:

Lateral Ankle Sprains:

Which is the most common ankle sprain. And there are typically three grades to those.

  1. Grade 1 sprain (Mild): Mild injury to the ankle’s main ligament.
  2. Grade 2 sprain (Moderate): Partial tearing to multiple ligaments.
  3. Grade 3 sprain (Severe): Severe tearing which affects all three main ligaments of the ankle.

 

High Ankle Sprains:

The second type of injury is called a high ankle sprain. And that’s typically when an injury occurs to the ankle where the foot will turn outward.

And the ligaments are damaged that connect the two bones of the legs called the tibia and the fibula together.

And those ligaments can either stretch or tear. And that can be somewhat of a more debilitating injury than your typical lateral ankle sprain.

If those ligaments get torn those two bones will piston and separate when you walk and that can cause a significant injury to the point where it can need surgical correction.

 

Ankle Sprain Symptoms:

 

Swelling:

You can see a Grade 1 ankle sprain. Which will often appear with some swelling on the outside of the ankle.

 

Bruising:

The bruising can even extend to the toes and even up in the leg and calf. Depending on how much force the injury was sustained upon.

A Stage two injury where there’s some tearing of the ligaments can lead to the point. Where you have swelling which almost looks like a golf ball or a grapefruit on the outside of the ankle.

And obviously that bruising will cause much more significant color changes to the extremity and it’ll cause a lot more swelling to the extremity.

The reason that will swell much more is that when the ligament’s tear. The joint fluid can actually leave the ankle and start to collect underneath the skin and will cause the focal amount of swelling.

 

Possible fracture:

Oftentimes a high ankle sprain will even cause a fracture to the upper bone of the leg called a fibula, just below the knee.

So you can often see swelling from the knee or the lower thigh down to the toes.

And the bruising can kind of follows that swelling path as well.

 

Difficulty walking:

The patient had difficulty walking. Especially on incline or decline. Patients will often describe a situation where they have a difficult time going downstairs, but going upstairs they have the ability to be comfortable.

Many times with a Grade 1 or Grade 2 injury the patient can walk flat-footed without pain. It’s when they try to do any hyperextension or hyperflexion that’s the injury can become very noticeable.

And it’s often noted that when people have ankle injuries the first three or four days are the most painful because that’s when the swelling is really starting to penetrate the joint.

As the body starts to adjust for the amount of swelling, that’s when the ankle injury will start to settle down.

 

How is an ankle sprain diagnosed?

The treatment is typically non-surgical you go to your doctor or you go to an orthopedic surgeon they’re going to examine your ankle maybe get X-rays to rule out that you broke a bone or a fracture.

Usually, we don’t need to get an MRI because the diagnosis at least at first is pretty straightforward.

 

How is an ankle sprain treated?

So early on you’re going to try things like ice and elevation may be compression with an ace wrap or something like that to get the swelling down.

You go to the doctor they may put you in a pain relief brace of some sort to give you stability side to side.

They’ll probably also ask to work with a physical therapist at first. That’s getting motion back and getting strengthen your ankle and foot in your leg.

So that you can regain your joint position sense. So that your ankle can stabilize itself on uneven surfaces.

 

 

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Causes of Ankle Fracture

The most common bone and joint injuries are ankle injuries. How you should be careful about your ankle injury is depending upon the degree of pain, inability to walk and if the bone is broken or not. Most of the time, the doctor also has the same concern, is there a broken bone? Because diagnosing sprain, dislocation or tendon injury is much easier than diagnosing a fracture.

Let’s see what the main causes of an ankle fracture are. But before that, we need to know the structure of the ankle joint. It is made up of 3 bones coming together.

The tibia- It is the main bone of the lower leg, makes up the inside of the ankle joint.

The fibula- It is a smaller bone that parallels the tibia in the lower leg. It makes up the outside of the ankle joint.

The talus- Both the tibia and fibula are known as the singular is malleolus. Together they form an arch that sits on top of the talus.

These 3 bones- the tibia, fibula, and talus make up the bony elements of the ankle joint. It is stabilized by several ligaments that hold these bones in place.

Ankle Fracture Causes

Stress is the most common cause of an ankle fracture. If you stress an ankle joint beyond strength, you injure the joint. If there is only wear and tear on the ligaments then you have sprained the ankle. In case of breaking bones, you have an ankle fracture. It can occur with simultaneous tears of the ligaments. These are the reasons for ankle fracture:

  • Twisting the ankle side to side
  • Rolling the ankle in or out
  • A strong force applied to the joint by coming straight down on it as in jumping from a high level
  • Flexing or extending the joint

This is the general information about the causes of Ankle Fracture. We recommend you to take your doctor’s advice for proper guidance. We hope this information adds value to your knowledge. Watch out this space for more such information. Greetings for SYS Medtech International PVT. LTD.

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