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SportsAcute Care and Return to Play
Twenty flashcards on caring for an ankle sprain from the first minutes to rehabilitation and the return-to-play decision.
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20 cards
- What does RICE stand for?
- Rest, ice, compression and elevation.
- Goals of acute care for an ankle sprain?
- Protect the ankle, control pain, limit swelling and reduce secondary hypoxic injury.
- Why apply cryotherapy to an acute sprain?
- To reduce pain, minimize swelling and decrease secondary injury.
- Commonly suggested time for a cold treatment?
- 20 to 30 minutes; the best mode, duration and frequency are not yet set.
- Safety step with a chemical cold pack?
- Put a barrier such as a wet towel on the skin; below-freezing packs can damage tissue.
- What is cryokinetics?
- About 10 minutes of cold to numb pain, then exercise; reapply 3 to 5 minutes for more pain-free bouts.
- Compression and elevation: what for?
- Both are used to minimize swelling (evidence category C).
- Heat in the acute or subacute phase?
- Avoid it: there is no evidence for it and it may worsen the injury.
- What do NSAIDs do for an ankle sprain?
- Oral or topical, they reduce pain and swelling and improve short-term function (category A).
- Main advantage of topical NSAIDs?
- Pain relief without systemic side effects.
- Grade I and II sprains: functional rehab or immobilization?
- Functional rehabilitation is more effective (category A).
- Grade III sprain: initial plan?
- Immobilize at least 10 days in a rigid stirrup brace or below-knee cast, then controlled exercise.
- What should rehabilitation include?
- Full range of motion, flexibility and strengthening of the muscles around the ankle.
- Why train balance throughout rehab?
- It reduces reinjury rates (category A).
- Wobble-board study: reinjury with training vs. without?
- 25% with 12 weeks of training vs. 54% in the control group.
- Number needed to treat for balance training?
- 5: training 5 patients prevents 1 ankle reinjury.
- Return to play: how is the athlete's own view included?
- With self-report tools such as the Lower Limb Task Questionnaire or the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool.
- Functional tests for return to play?
- For example the single-leg hop for distance and the Star Excursion Balance Test.
- Performance target before sport-specific tasks?
- The injured limb scores at least 80% of the uninjured limb.
- Athlete with a past sprain: what support for practices and games?
- Ankle taping or a lace-up or semirigid brace at every practice and game.
Official sources
National Athletic Trainers' Association (PubMed Central, National Library of Medicine)
National Athletic Trainers' Association Position Statement: Conservative Management and Prevention of Ankle Sprains in Athletes (J Athl Train 2013)
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