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SportsAnkle sprain: active, passive and resisted range of motion
You test the injured ankle's range of motion in full: active, passive and resisted, in both planes. Passive motion puts injured structures under tension; active and resisted motion show damage to muscles and tendons, or muscles held back by the joint injury.
Free to startScenarios
- Sagittal plane: plantar flexion and dorsiflexion.
- Frontal plane: inversion and eversion.
The steps
- Test active range of motion in plantar flexion and dorsiflexion.
- Test active range of motion in inversion and eversion.
- Test passive range of motion in both planes: it helps find the injured structures under tension.
- Test resisted range of motion in both planes: it helps find damage to muscles and tendons, or muscle inhibition from the joint injury.
- If total range of motion is limited, consider a lesion inside the joint or swelling within it.
- Read the results for injury to ligaments, muscles, tendons and nerves.
To pass
- Active, passive and resisted motion tested in both planes.
- Limited, painful or weak directions linked to the structures that may be injured.
Official source
Athletic trainers · NATA position statement
National Athletic Trainers' Association Position Statement: Conservative Management and Prevention of Ankle Sprains in Athletes (J Athl Train, 2013)
The National Athletic Trainers' Association position statement on ankle sprains (Journal of Athletic Training, 2013), free on PubMed Central: recommendation 2 and its literature review.
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