LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP OF INVERSION TRAUMA OF THE ANKLE

In our institution lateral ankle ligament injuries are classified into three grades according to the extent of instability found on physical examination and/or stress Xrays. Grade I and II lesions are taped, wh ile treatment of grade III lesions consists of operative reconstructio n of the ruptured ligaments. In 1989 we published the results of 1012 patients after 9 months' follow-up. About 30% had residual complaints. The nature and frequency of the complaints were equally divided among the three groups. To examine the long-term follow-up results, we cond ucted a retrospective study with the same group of patients after 6.5 years. Although ankle ligament injuries are still considered rather in nocent lesions, we conclude that even after 6.5 years patients can sti ll have residual complaints (pain, fear of giving-way, actual instabil ity, swelling), which interfere with daily living and/or sport activit ies. The result deteriorated with time. This was especially prominent in the grade II group, where the percentage of poor and fair results d oubled. The overall percentage of residual complaints was 39%. We conc lude that there is no such thing as ''a simple sprain''.