How to Diagnose a Sprained Ankle
- 1). Recognize the symptoms of an ankle sprain, including swelling and bruising in your ankle. A sprained ankle will hurt when you try to put weight on it. You may also have a hard time moving your ankle. Some people say that during an ankle sprain injury, they heard the joint pop.
- 2). Seek medical advice. Your doctor will want to know the exact details on how you injured your ankle. He will evaluate your ankle through a physical exam. He will check for tender areas on the ankle and move it around to check your range of motion. Any time you feel pain during the exam, you should tell your doctor so that he can note it.
- 3). After the physical exam, you doctor will probably run a few tests to verify the ankle sprain and rule out any more serious conditions. He may have X-rays taken of your ankle to rule out a broken bone. In some cases a computerized tomography (CT) scan or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan is used to determine the severity of the ankle sprain. Both of these scans show a little more detail about the soft tissues that surround your ankle and can identify any tissue damage.
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