I have a sprained ankle. After some time healed, pain started from the medial side. What should I do next?
I suffered an ankle sprain in July last year, treated it, but did not have rehabilitation. About 3 weeks after the injury, as the lateral pain subsided, I began to feel a marked pain on the medial side (precisely on the posterior medial ankle). Currently, I am after 20 rehabilitation treatments (laser, ultrasound, electricity, magnetic field plus motor rehabilitation) and I still do not have the full range of motion in the joint (it hurts in the described place in the extreme positions of the foot). The pain increases when, in the case of plantar flexion, I rest my heel on, for example, a bed. I had an ultrasound examination, where the only drawback was the uneven outline of the postero-upper part of the talus from the medial side, the possibility of a 9mm fracture of the bone fragment. I am asking for help, what should I do next in order to return to sports (I am a volleyball player). I would like to add that the range of motion increased after the treatments, but the pain persists. – Luke
Many injuries after various injuries heal spontaneously, but if, after twisting the joint after six months, the symptoms still persist, the matter should be taken seriously. Of course, without seeing you and without examining it, it is difficult to make an unequivocal diagnosis. The causes may be relatively trivial, such as, for example, scarring within the joint or in the joint capsule, but on the other hand, both the nature of the ailments and changes in the ultrasound description may indicate a more serious cause – cartilage and bone damage to the ankle bone block. In addition to the examination by an orthopedist, I propose to perform additional imaging tests – primarily X-rays, from your description it can be concluded that the examination was not performed, but even if there were and no post-traumatic changes were found, I suggest repeating them, because this type of damage is not always visible on fresh X-ray images (sometimes trauma can cause necrosis of cartilage cells without damaging the structure of these tissues, changes in their morphology are then delayed). If no pathology is found in the X-ray, the diagnosis should be extended to include further tests, in particular magnetic resonance imaging, and the management should depend on the pathologies found. However, I invite you to visit, further description of problems and possible treatment methods is possible after a medical consultation.
Advice provided by:
Tomasz Poboży, MD, PhD – orthopedic surgeon, Medicover Hospital