A prospective study was performed to compare surgical treatment (prima
ry repair plus early controlled mobilization) to functional treatment
(early controlled mobilization alone) in severe (Grade III) lateral li
gament injuries of the ankle, Thirty surgically treated patients were
compared with 30 age, height, weight, gender, and sporting activity ma
tched, functionally treated similar patients, In both treatment groups
, all but 1 patient had a stable ankle at 9 months, Compared with the
functional group, the range of motion of the ankle joint was restricte
d in the surgical treatment group at 6 weeks but did normalize during
the followup, The functional group showed no restrictions, A specific
scoring scale developed for subjective and functional followup evaluat
ion of an injured ankle also was used as an outcome criterion, Nine mo
nths after the injury, excellent or good scores were achieved in 87 %
of the functionally treated patients and 60 % of the surgically treate
d patients, respectively, The results of this study indicated that ear
ly mobilization gives better results than surgery plus mobilization in
the treatment of the complete tears of the lateral ligaments of the a
nkle.