[Sportphysiotherapy interventions in acute inversion trauma: evidence based?].

INTRODUCTION

Epidemiological data show a high injury incidence of the lateral capsular ankle ligaments. About half of the ankle injuries occur during sporting activities, due to an inversion trauma. Although inversion injuries of the ankle are a common problem in physical therapy, there is a converse variety of treatment strategies and differences in therapy outcome. There still seems to be a lack of evidence-based physical therapy strategies for this problem. The aim of this study was to scrutinize literature for the effectiveness of the physical therapy in patients with ankle sprain.

METHODS

Relevant studies were collected by conducting a literature search using the online databases; the selection criteria were randomised trails, clinical trails, review articles, and meta-analyses.

CONCLUSION

For the diagnosis there seems to be no correlation between the medical classification of injury severity and the prognosis of recovery or between the severity of the ankle ligament injury and clinical findings. In general, there is no or only marginal evidence for the effectiveness of different physical therapies such as cryotherapy, electrotherapy and ultrasound. There is body of evidence that functional treatment is much more effective than immobilisation. Because there is a wide variety of treatment modalities and because in most studies multiple treatment regimens are used, no conclusions can be drawn concerning the effectiveness of specific treatment.