What should I do if I have a sprain in the ankle joint?

About damage of ankle joints of famous athletes Can often be heard in television reports. Overtrained, injured and permanently out of order. It turns out that this is a specific damage?

Unfortunately, stretching the ankle joint can affect not only professional athletes. This is a fairly common household injury. You can turn up your leg, failing stumbling on the street (at high risk women are on high heels), during amateur sports, to which most are light-minded.

Symptomatic of ankle sprain

Ankle bones: talus, peroneal and tibial - Fix in working position and fasten with muscles fibula and deltoid ligament. If the leg takes an unnatural position, the ligaments are injured. The first thing that indicates the stretching of the ligaments of the ankle joint is the symptoms (pain and swelling).

If the damage to the ligaments is serious, then this symptomatology can cause a shock state.

Then the external swelling of the leg in the ankle region is attached to the pain, a marked bruise may appear. Painful sensations continue, even if one does not rest on one's foot.

There are 3 degrees of sprain:

• With a slight stretching of 1 degree, the movement of the joint is limited only slightly. Some fibers are torn in the bundles.
• The second, average degree of damage, characterizes the partial rupture of the fibers of the ligament tissues, the turn of the foot is painful, but feasible.
• The third degree of stretching and damage in the full sense can not be called. The bunch tore completely, the joint lost stability. Without medical intervention, sometimes surgical, it will be impossible to restore its function.

If there was an extension of the ligament of the ankle joint, the characteristic symptomatology appeared, it is simply necessary to seek medical help. Only after an X-ray, the doctor will be able to say with certainty whether this is a stretch or a fracture.

First aid

• First aid for ankle injury is a cold compress. But this does not mean that you need to keep ice permanently. 20 minutes with interruptions within 24 hours after injury.
• Then it is required to limit the load on the damaged limb and fix it. It is advisable to make it an elastic bandage. For the night you can take off the bandage.
• To reduce the swelling after the injury that caused the sprain of the ankle joint, the leg should be kept in a horizontal position. At night, it is necessary to put a pillow under it.

No alcohol rubbing with miraculous tinctures or warming procedures! This will stimulate blood flow in the surrounding tissue and increase swelling.

Therapy for ankle injury

In addition to the fixative bandage, or orthosis, the retainer that will have to be worn At least 3 weeks, with the elimination of ankle injury, drug therapy is used.

The doctor may prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs that help reduce pain and relieve swelling, for example, Ibuprofen, Ketorol or other non-steroid agents.

Effectively removes the edema and painful sensations present in such trauma as sprain of the ankle joint, ointments and external gel preparations: Ketonal, Dolobene, Diclofenac and the like.

Prevention of sprains in the ankle joint

In order not to stretch the ligament of the ankle joint, you need:

• Try to wear only comfortable shoes;
• Closely monitor its condition, do not allow the heels to wear off on the one hand;
• To control weight to prevent excessive loads on the joints;
• Exercise regularly.

It is sports that improve the mobility of muscles and the condition of the joints, maintain them in working order. And, of course, do not forget while walking, especially on uneven surfaces, carefully look under your feet.