Effect of ankle sprain on balance and the range of motion among athletes

Abstract

Study design: Cross-sectional study Background: Ankle sprain is a common sports injury that occurs among football players, and also in other physically demanding activities such as volleyball, basketball and handball. Football players that suffer from an ankle sprain injury are bound to miss a lot of important competitions due to the effect of the injury. Therefore, it is important to identify the risk factors to decrease the rate of recurrence and reduce injury occurrence as far as possible.Purpose: To assess and compare balance and ROM between injured and intact ankle joints in injured football players group; to compare individuals suffering from ankle injury with a group of healthy football players; to find whether or not balance and ROM return to normal range after a rehabilitation period; and to investigate the possible effect of balance on intact leg in injured group of football players after complete rehabilitation period.Methods: Sixty-four male subjects aged between 18 and 35 years were recruited for this study. The subjects were divided into two groups 32 subjects in each of the healthy and injured groups. Measurement in this study involved balance and ROM with regard to the ankle joint for both groups. In terms of ROM, a manual goniometer was used to take dorsiflexion and planter flexion measurements. A manual goniometer is completely safe to use. For balance, the researcher used the SWAY medical system to measure ankle joint balance. The SWAY medical system has special protocols for football players in order to measure balance.Statistical Analysis: A paired t-test was used to analyse ROM and balance in the ankle joint between the injured and the uninjured side in same subject for the healthy and injured groups. Finally, an independent t-test was used to find differences between the healthy group and the injured group. Results: The ankle sprain injury induces negative effects on the ankle joint of football players. The balance of both legs in the injured group was worse than in the healthy group for the dominant leg (P = 0.0001) which was the injured leg. There is a significant difference between the healthy group and the injured group after injury in the non-dominant leg (P= 0.001). the range of motion only affects injured leg in the injured group, regarding the intact leg there is no significant difference in case of dorsiflexion (P= 0.7873) and plantar flexion (P= 0.4671) when compared with healthy subjects. Comparison between the healthy group and the injured group showed significant difference in the case of ROM for the dominant leg (P= 0.0001) which was the injured part.Conclusion: Ankle sprain is the most dreaded musculoskeletal injury for football players. This study has proven that it impairs balance for both the injured leg and the sound leg, even after a complete rehabilitation period, while range of motion is only affected in the injured leg.