Mechanical Instability After an Acute Lateral Ankle Sprain

• Published in: Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation Vol. 90; no. 7; pp. 1142 - 1146
• Main Authors: Hubbard, Tricia J., Cordova, Mitchell
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.07.2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Acute Disease; Adult; Ankle Injuries - complications; Ankle Injuries - physiopathology; Ankle Injuries - rehabilitation; Ankle Joint - physiopathology; Arthrometry, Articular; Biological and medical sciences; Biomechanical Phenomena; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Female; Humans; Injuries of the limb. Injuries of the spine; Male; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Pain - physiopathology; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; Prospective Studies; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Rehabilitation; Sprains and Strains - physiopathology; Sprains and Strains - rehabilitation; Traumas. Diseases due to physical agents; FADI; Arthrometry, articular; ATFL; CFL; CAI; Rehabilitation; MANOVA; AP; Foot and Ankle Disability Index; multivariate analysis of variance; chronic ankle instability; calcaneofibular ligament; anteroposterior; anterior talofibular ligament; Arthrometry; Acute; Lateral; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Trauma; Ankle; Sprain; Ankle joint; Reeducation; Orthopedics; articular; Instability
• ISSN: 0003-9993; 1532-821X; 1532-821X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2009.01.020

Hubbard TJ, Cordova M. Mechanical instability after an acute lateral ankle sprain. To examine the natural recovery of mechanical laxity after an ankle sprain over an 8-week period. Prospective cohort study. Biodynamics research laboratory. Subjects with an acute lateral ankle sprain (n=16; 7 men, 9 women; age, 19.5±0.7y; mass, 64.6±8.1kg; height, 171.9±9.6cm) and healthy controls (n=16; 7 men, 9 women; age, 20.4±1.7y; mass, 76.9±11.1kg; height, 176.5±11.1cm) participated. Not applicable. Subjects with acute ankle sprains were tested 3 days after injury and again 8 weeks later. Anterior and posterior displacement (mm) and inversion and eversion rotation (°) were measured with an instrumented arthrometer. For each dependent variable, a 2 × 2 × 2 repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance was performed. A significant interaction was found between group, time, and side for anterior translation (F=4.24, P=.05). There were also significant main effects for group. There was significantly more anterior displacement at day 3 (F=19.52, P=.001) and at week 8 (F=8.45, P=.010) in the injured group compared with the healthy group. There was also significantly more inversion rotation at day 3 (F=2.70, P=.002) and at week 8 (F=5.4, P=.033) in the injured group compared with the healthy group. The lack of significant differences in mechanical laxity over an 8-week period suggests that natural recovery of laxity takes longer than 8 weeks. Further research needs to be conducted to examine how long this laxity persists and the role ankle rehabilitation plays in mechanical stability restoration.