Sprained Ankle
Ligament Sprains Explained: Your Path to Recovery
Ankle & Ligament Sprains
A sprain refers to a ligament injury, often due to a moment of excessive movement of a joint in your body. A ligament is a structure made up of fibres that helps support a joint by connecting two bones. Like a rope, these fibres can sometimes tear if put under too much force, leading to a sprain injury.
The severity of sprains can vary widely, from minor damage (also called grade 1 injuries) that might only mean a few days of being unable to do your normal activities, to full ruptures of a ligament (also called grade 3 injuries) which may require more strict intervention like wearing a boot, splint or in some cases operations to reconstruct the ligament.
Full ligament ruptures are relatively rare. It is much more common to sustain a partial injuries (grade 1 or 2) which usually take anywhere between a few days to 12 weeks typically to heal fully.
How can Physiotherapy help?
It can be important to get a good diagnosis to make sure there isn’t any additional damage to other structures in the area. This can be done when injured / early days or if you don’t progress your rehab as expected.
Seeing a physiotherapist can help you to return to your normal activities safely and sooner, and help to decrease the risk of re-injuring the same ligament again. The type of treatment given or advised may change depending on how old the injury is and how severe it is.
It is really important to strengthen the area and regain flexibility and proprioception in the area, because these injuries can reoccur. Returning to full function and addressing the reason for the original injury if it wasn’t an accident is essential to prevent recurrence.
