Day 6 - Post Ankle Sprain

It's the sixth day, and things are looking  and feeling great in my ankle. After the initial injury I was really thinking that the swelling would have been more widespread as well as the bruising.

I have been using the combination of acupuncture, ultrasound, as well as hot/cold applications to help reduce the inflammation as soon as possible. As you can see in the day 4 image below, the swelling on the lateral malleolus (the outside ankle bone) is not as dense as it once was. Initially there was at least 10mm of fluid, now we are taking about 1-2mm.

In these next images you can see the 6th day ankle, and the following is the application of ultrasound to the damaged area. If you read the comments of the last post, you can find more information concerning the application of ultrasound in physiotherapy.

As I noted previously, I wanted to do a little bit of a literature review of treatment of ankle sprains through physiotherapy and exercise therapy. The most applicable article that I could find that pertained to acute lateral ankle sprains was published in the Journal of Orthoapedic & Sports Physical Therapy (once again!).

The article is titled: Wobble Board Training After Partial Sprains of the Lateral Ligaments of the Ankle: A Prospective Randomized Study. The article took 48 subjects (each being in the athletic population) and were split into a training group and a no-training group (control). The training group completed a daily wobble board exercise program for 12 weeks, each session lasting about 15 minutes. Below you can see a little bit better the remaining swelling in the right ankle (this picture is taken into a mirror hence why it looks like the left ankle!).

The outcome measure was the subject's report of instability and re-injury. There was a significant difference between the two, concluding that those who did the wobble training effectively reduced the functional instability if the ankle (functional instability was stated to be the most common residual symptom following ankle sprains - ranging between 17-58% of patients, depending on the study).

I have been going on the wobble board daily, and look forward to being more stable on my feet!

Wester, J.N. et. al. (1996). Wobble Board Training After Partial Sprains of the Lateral Ligaments of the Ankle: A Prospective Randomized Study. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 23 (5), 332-336.