Current practice for safe return-to-play after lateral ankle sprain: A survey among French-speaking physicians.

Foot Ankle Surg

University of Liège, Sports Sciences Department, Human Motion Analysis Lab, Liège, Belgium; Central University Hospital of Liège, Physical Medicine and Sports Traumatology Department, SportS(2), FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, FIMS Collaborative Centre Sports Medicine, French-speaking Research Network for Athlete Health Protection & Performance (ReFORM) - IOC Research Centre for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health, Liège, Belgium.

Published: April 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • - The study explored how French-speaking physicians in Belgium, France, and Switzerland assess return-to-play (RTP) criteria for athletes recovering from lateral ankle sprains using an online survey.
  • - Most physicians identified pain (90%) and ability to perform functional tasks (82%) as critical for RTP decisions, while fewer considered factors like strength, swelling, and mechanical instability.
  • - Despite knowing the recommended criteria for safe RTP, the majority of physicians rarely used quantitative measures to evaluate these factors in practice.

Article Abstract

Background: Recommendations are available for assessment criteria for safe return-to-play (RTP) after a lateral ankle sprain. However, their current use among physicians is unknown.

Methods: French-speaking physicians in Belgium, France and Switzerland were asked to complete an online survey and report their clinical assessment of selected RTP criteria.

Results: The respondent sample (n=109) included physicians with and without Sports Medicine education, varied level of experience and proportion of athletes in their practice population. Pain was the most selected criterion for safe RTP (90% of physicians), followed by ability to engage in functional tasks (82%), functional instability (73%), range of motion (61%), proprioception (47%), mechanical instability (39%), strength (38%) and swelling (31%). A low proportion of physicians use quantitative measures to assess these criteria (between 4% and 53%).

Conclusions: A large proportion of physicians consider the recommended criteria for RTP decisions. However, physicians do not frequently use quantitative measures.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fas.2021.03.023DOI Listing

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