“Is My Ankle Sprained or Broken?” Answers to Readers’ FAQs
by James Hubbard, MD, MPH What happens if you twist your ankle so badly that you don’t know whether it’s sprained or broken? I get that question a lot on my post about clues to a possible fracture. “I twisted my ankle in basketball. Is it broken?” “It’s really swelled up. It hurts a lot. Is it broken or sprained?” My answer? I don’t know. I can’t tell without a physical exam. And even then, my diagnosis would need to be confirmed with an X-ray because lots of times, breaks and sprains have the same symptoms. So, as you might imagine, in a survival situation without an X-ray, diagnosis and treatment will get tricky even for medical professionals. […]