Ankle Sprain Health Video

Ankle sprains are extremely painful and can take a long time to heal. Get expert tips and advice on medical treatments in this video.

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Rest the injury
Take over the counter anti-inflammatory medication
Ice down the injury
Exercise to strengthen ankle
See the doctor if pain persists

About this Author

Jonathon J. Uy, DPM is a board-certified podiatrist from the American Board of Multiple Specialties in Podiatry, Prevention and Treatment of diabetic foot wounds and in diabetic footwear. He holds degrees from the Barry University, the School of Podiatric Medicine in Miami Shores, Fla. and Boston University College of Engineering in Boston, Mass. He obtained a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree and a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering, respectively. Uy did his postgraduate training at the California College of Podiatric Medicine in San Francisco, MedPremises Surgery Center in San Diego, and at the BUSPM/Columbia Cedars Medical Center in Miami, Fla. Uy also holds many memberships and positions on some of the finest podiatric boards and associations in the country.

JONATHON UY, M.D.: Hello, my name is Dr. Jonathon Uy and today, I'm going to talk about ankle sprains. Ankles sprains are basically the soft tissue injury of the ankle. It usually involves ligaments and other surrounding soft tissues of the ankle and is usually due to twisting of the ankle or some other type of trauma. Symptoms of ankle sprains are usually swelling, redness, and of course pain. The basic treatment of ankle sprains basically follow the RICE which is rest, ice, compression, and elevation, but if those do not improve the symptoms then you would visit your physician or podiatrist and you would get more extensive treatment. One of the things that would be required is getting an x-ray just to rule out fractures or any other problems that might need to be ruled out, but usually in those cases the x-rays would be normal and there would be no abnormalities on those x-rays. Once the ankle sprain is diagnosed, usually the ankles sprains would be treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, Motrin, Naprosyn, or any of those prescription medications. It's not very typical that narcotics would be needed to treat pain, but there are some cases in which that might be needed depending on the pain threshold of a person. In addition to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, an Ace wrap or some type of ankle brace can be used for the immobilization of the ankle. Crutches might also help depending on the type of injury or extensive injury and also depending on the amount of pain the patient is having. Then usually after several weeks, there should be some improvement. If there hasn 't been any improvement within the few weeks, then most typically an MRI might be needed to rule out any tears in any ligaments or tendons or any other soft tissues that might be more severe than an ankle sprain. Those type of images cannot be seen on x-ray, so an MRI would be a further test that would be needed if the symptoms do not improve after the initial visit; and then after all the other severe injuries are ruled out then typically the ankle sprain should feel better within a few weeks and it is best to keep mobilization because if you keep it in a brace, it would be a little bit more difficult for the range of motion of the ankle to improve in itself and also if you would immobilize the ankle joint, there would be weakening of the muscles that help the ankle move and would the decrease the amount of strength in those areas; and so if you are an active person, it's better to have symptoms subside in the first couple of weeks and then start doing exercises that would keep the strengthening of the ankle but without further injuring your ankle, but those exercises are usually instructed or demonstrated by a professional healthcare provider such as a physician, a podiatrist or a physical therapist.