Epidemiology of injuries due to ankle sprain diagnosed in an orthopedic emergency room.

OBJECTIVE

To use magnetic resonance imaging to assess the prevalence of foot and ankle ligament injuries and fractures associated with ankle sprain and not diagnosed by x-ray.

METHODS

We included 180 consecutive patients with a history of ankle sprain, assessed at a primary care service in a 12-month period. Magnetic resonance imaging findings were recorded and described.

RESULTS

Approximately 92% of patients had some type of injury shown on the magnetic resonance imaging. We found 379 ligament injuries, 9 osteochondral injuries, 19 tendinous injuries and 51 fractures. Only 14 magnetic resonance imaging tests (7.8%) did not show any sort of injury. We observed a positive relation between injuries of the lateral complex, syndesmosis and medial ligaments. However, there was a negative correlation between ankle ligament injuries and midfoot injuries.

CONCLUSION

There was a high rate of injuries secondary to ankle sprains. We found correlation between lateral ligament injuries and syndesmosis and deltoid injuries. We did not observe a relation between deltoid and syndesmosis injuries or between lateral ligamentous and subtalar injuries. Similarly, no relation was found between ankle and midfoot injuries.