Issues for attention in the diagnosis and management of actue athletic injuries of foot and ankle / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Acute athletic injuries of foot and ankle may involve bony structures, ligaments and tendons, and most patients manifest as various degrees of swelling, pain and limited motion. Lacking of specificity, the injuries can be easily overlooked by the patients and even by the doctors. Furthermore, the diagnosis can not be confirmed in a portion of the injuries via a routine radiographic examination due to their obscurity, leading to a certain rate of tmiss diagnosis and misdiagnosis, which can be clarified by a detailed specialized physical and radiographic examination. For acute athletic injuries of foot and ankle, the miss diagnosis or misdiagnosis may lead to complications such as chronic joint instability, osteochondral lesion, impingement, and even post-traumatic arthritis, which severely impacts the patients′ life quality. Therefore, the authors discuss the issues requiring attention in the diagnosis and management of acute athletic injuries of foot and ankle to improve the clinical outcome of such pattern of injuries.