Ankle injuries can be really painful and can cause significant discomfort and swelling also. If you have went over your ankle in the past you’ll be familiar with the pain it can cause. Its also easy to sprain your ankle and fracture a bone in your foot as well. This can go undetected if not assessed by an appropriate professional.
This is a guide that I use within my practice to assess ankles, especially ones with acute injuries in order to see if an x-ray is needed or not. Its really simple to use
In this picture lateral means the outside of your foot and medial means the inside of your foot.
A. Bony tenderness along distal 6 cm of posterior edge of fibula or tip of lateral malleolus (bony part on the outside of the foot and just above it)
B. Bony tenderness along distal 6 cm of posterior edge of tibia/tip of medial malleolus (bony part on inside of the foot and just above it)
C. Bony tenderness at the base of 5th metatarsal (bony point on the outside of your foot around 1/2 to 2/3 of the way down)
D. Bony tenderness at the navicular (bony point just above the arch of your foot on the inside)
E. Inability to bear weight both immediately after injury and for 4 steps during initial evaluation with a health professional.
Hopefully this helps seeing my thought process when going through an acute ankle sprain in order to establish whether we need an x-ray or not. This screening is not 100% accurate however so it is definitely worth speaking to a health professional whether that’s at your local hospital or with myself at All Out Physiotherapy if you have any doubts about your foot/ ankle pain.
