Treating Lateral Ankle Sprain in Basketball Players-A physiotherapists’ Prospective

Basketball is a team game and a noncontact sport. It is a fast moving and aggressive game which requires lot of vertical jumps and multidirectional activities [1]. Taylor, 2004 found out that on an average a basketball player performs 1050 ± 51 movements in a game out of which 46±12 are vertical jumps [2]. As the game includes lot of vertical jumps and multidirectional activities, the injury rate is quite high [3]. The injury rate is as high as 7.9 injuries per 1000 athlete exposures (AEs) in females and 7.1 injuries per 1000 AEs in males [4]. Amongst all the injuries, ankle sprains are most common. The incidence of ankle sprains is greater than 80% in basketball players because of the nature of the game [5]. More than 90% of elite athletes reported a history of at least one ankle injury in their athletic career [6]. The common mechanism of injury is excessive supination of the rear foot on an externally rotated lower leg soon after the initial contact of the rear foot during gait or landing from a jump [7]. Lateral ankle sprains are based on grades 1-3. Grade 1 is microscopic tearing of ATFL, grade 2microscopic tearing of larger cross sectional portion of ATFL and grade 3complete rupture of the ATFL [8].