What are the difference in symptoms from a sprained or broken ankle?

Question

my husband hurt his ankle and it is swollen like a bubble in front of his ankle bone and he is in bad pain. He went to the hospital and I am just waiting for him to get home, just wanted some ideas on what people thought it was.

Answer 1

A SPRAIN - is an injury that involves the ligaments and other soft tissues around a joint, such as an ankle.

A STRAIN - occurs away from a joint and involves a torn or over stretched muscle or tendon, commonly in the calf, thigh or lower back.

Signs and symptoms of the above is;
* Pain at the site of the injury, often servere with a sprain or strain.
* Loss of power in the injured area, especially with a sprained joint.
* Nausea
* Feeling faint or giddy
* Pale, cold and clammy skin, due to shock.

A DISLOCATION - is where a bone has been displaced from its normal position at a joint. some joints are more likely than others to dislocate under sudden, severe force e.g. shoulder, or fingers. And should always be treated as a break.

A BROKEN BONE - called a fracture, some fractures are complete, e.g when a long bone snaps in half, where others fractures may involve only part of a bone breaking.
- Closed fracture is where the is no break in the skin.
- Open fracture is where the bone end has broken the skin or a wound is present with the fracture.
- Complicated where an underlying organ is involved, e.g. a fractured skull with pressure on the brain, or when a broken rib has injured the lung.

Signs and symptoms of fracture/dislocation
* pain (servere or moderate, depending on the location of the injury)
* Swelling
* Deformity of the injured area (when compared with the uninjured side of the body)
* Loss of normal function of the injured part
* Discolouration of the skin or bruising
* A wound if it is an open fracture
* Symptoms and signs of shock
* Altered sensation, e.g. "pins and needles" if a nerve is under pressure, or a grating sensation if injured bone ends are rubbing together.

With fractures and dislocations you must seek medical attention immediately.

Answer 2

A sprained ankle is when the ligaments in the leg are stretched or torn, and a broken ankle is, obviously, when the bone is broken or fractured.

Sprains and fractures are a little hard to tell apart, but if it swelled up pretty fast, it's more likely a fracture than a sprain.

Answer 3

The symptoms between a sprain and a break are similar. However with a broken ankle the pain is more acute, plus he would not be able to move the ankle or walk on it, depending on the nature of the break.

Answer 4

I badly sprained my ankle about 3 weeks ago. I was in a hurry going down the stairs, lost my balance and landed on a bad side of my left foot, causing my left ankle to be stretched going on the inside. The first 48 hours were excruciating and the pain was un-believable. I've never had a serious ankle injury before.

So I immediately treated it using the RICE method. The following day, the bruising and swelling were so horrible. I found out that I got a second degree sprain and immediately panicked after that. I had a football game on that week and it been looking forward to it because I've been training for rt. I had teammates that had similar injuries and it took them months to fully recover, some of them stopped playing altogether. So I kinda had a short-term depression because I can't imagine myself not being able to run and play sports anymore.

Because I was so desperate to recover again, I contacted a lot of people that I know who do sports and asked them if they had similar injuries. One friend of mine, from the boy's football team in my university, told me about H.E.M. Ankle Rehab. I got a copy 4 days after I got injured. I immediately read and followed what was instructed and felt improvement on the first day. I was able to walk a bit, but I was in pain.

A couple of days after that, the swelling and bruising were subsid-ing significantly and on the fourth day, I was walking comfortably again. Although I've had felt a bit of stiffness, I continued doing what was instructed. My sister was surprised that I have recovered this fast. I told her about this book and was shocked on how effective the procedures were. I'm just so happy that this book was shared to me and how effective it is.

Heal your ankle fully & fast?

Answer 5

Only the Xray can tell for sure but if he was nauseous (sick to his stomach) then it's probably broken. In my experience a broken bone usually incurs upset stomach. Whereas a sprain just hurts real bad and might make me feel dizzy.

Answer 6

OK, if he's walking it probably isn't broken. More likely he has torn ligaments a sprain, some soft tissue (cartilage) damage. But if his ankle were truly broken his foot would hang limply from his ankle.

Answer 7

I'm willing to bet that broken ankles hurt alot worse than sprained ankles.

Answer 8

You never know for sure unless you put pressure on the foot and feel a sharp stinging pain that almost makes you nauseous. If you do, it has a break. Bad sprains can be almost as bad as a break.

Answer 9

broken ankle is where the bone is actually broke. Sprained is just displaced or possibly fractured.

Answer 10

Depends on how much pain he is in when he tries to move it. I have had both and the break was much worse than the sprain.