Management of Acute and Chronic Lateral Ligament Injuries of the Ankle

Biomechanical Properties of Commonly Used Autogenous Transplants in the Surgical Treatment of Chronic Lateral Ankle Instability

“…1,7,23 More than 50 different procedures for ankle ligament reconstruction have been described, which indicate that no single method has been entirely successful. 4,24 Anatomic reconstruction is favored against nonanatomic reconstruction by most authors as no functionally relevant tissue is sacrificed and no tenodesis effect is created. 2,10,12 This investigation describes the biomechanical tissue characteristics of the most commonly used autografts (Table 1).…”

“…Rupture of the lateral ankle ligaments is one of the most common injuries with an incidence of 1/10000 athletes per day. 24,26 In spite of adequate diagnosis and therapy, 4 to 5% of these patients develop chronic post-traumatic lateral ankle instability. 5,6,18,22,24 Operative stabilization of the ankle is recommended if instability symptoms last for more than six months after injury and ligament laxity can be demonstrated by clinical or radiographic examination, and adequate physiotherapy has failed.…”

“…More than 50 different procedures have been described in the literature for operative ankle stabilization. 4,24 They are divided into anatomic techniques (using an autograft according to the anatomic position of the anterior talofibular and fibulocalcaneal ligament) and tenodeses techniques, which are designed to statically limit hindfoot inversion. The aim of our study was to assess the primary biomechanical properties of the most commonly used autografts for lateral ankle stabilization surgery.…”

A Comparative, Prospective, and Randomized Study of Two Conservative Treatment Protocols for First-episode Lateral Ankle Ligament Injuries

“…The anterior drawer test was used in this study to diagnose lateral ankle ligament injuries as it permitted the identification of abnormal movements related to the acute damage to the ATFL. 16,25 Of note, there was a 100% correlation between the positivity of this test and the presence of at least 1 affected ligament, as noted on MRI. Van Dijk et al 26 affirmed that physical examination in the first 48 hours after trauma has a sensitivity of 71% and a specificity of 33%, because of pain and muscle reflex contraction, but after 5 days following the trauma they increase to 96% and 84%, respectively.…”

Incidence and risk factors for poor ankle functional recovery, and the development and progression of posttraumatic ankle osteoarthritis after significant ankle ligament injury (SALI): the SALI cohort study protocol

“…This has been stated to be about 15% of the total number of sporting injuries [9] and emphasises that ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries to occur during sport and physical activity, both recreationally and competitively [20,[24][25][26][27]. This is particularly evident in sports where participants frequently jump and land on 1 foot, make sharp cutting manoeuvres, or make contact with either a teammate or opponent, such as basketball [28,29], volleyball [30], field hockey [31], handball [32], football [33], and figure skating [34] where ankle sprains have been reported as a predominant injury. Importantly the risk of sustaining an ankle sprain is different for differing sports [2,17,19].…”