Is It an Ankle Sprain or a Fracture – and Should I Get Help?

Almost every­one has had a sore ankle at some point. But if it’s ever got­ten to the point where it starts to hurt, you know that ankle pain is, well, a pain. In addi­tion to hurt­ing, it can make mov­ing around dif­fi­cult or even keep you off your feet entire­ly for a while.

While there are many poten­tial caus­es of ankle pain, two of the most well-known are sprains and breaks. These two injuries share some sim­i­lar­i­ties, but they are very dif­fer­ent from one another.

If you’ve hurt your ankle and you sus­pect a sprain or a frac­ture, you might have some ques­tions. Which one is it? What type of provider can help?

Here are answers to com­mon ques­tions about the dif­fer­ence between ankle sprains and frac­tures and what you can do after an injury.

What’s the Dif­fer­ence Between a Sprain and a Fracture?

The key dif­fer­ence is the part of the ankle that’s injured. An ankle sprain occurs when a lig­a­ment – tis­sue that con­nects your bones – gets stretched or torn. The ankle bones stay intact.

Frac­ture is anoth­er word for break. When you frac­ture your ankle, there’s a break in one or more of the three ankle bones: the fibu­la (out­er bone of your low­er leg), tib­ia (shin­bone), or talus (a bone at the back of your foot).

What Are Stress Fractures?

When peo­ple say they broke their ankle, they often mean they had a trau­mat­ic frac­ture. This is when the break occurs sud­den­ly, as a result of a spe­cif­ic injury or incident.

Ankle stress frac­tures are a lit­tle dif­fer­ent. They are small breaks or severe bruis­ing with­in the bone that are caused by overuse or repet­i­tive activ­i­ty that puts too much stress on the ankle.

Are Frac­tures Worse Than Sprains?

A bro­ken bone might sound worse than a sprain, but it’s not that sim­ple. Sprains can be just as painful and, like frac­tures, can make it dif­fi­cult to bear weight.

Recov­ery depends on the sever­i­ty of the injury. Frac­tures take about six weeks to heal. If you need surgery on more than one ankle bone, it could take up to two years to get back to nor­mal. Minor sprains often take as lit­tle as two weeks to heal, but severe ones can take up to 12 weeks.

Also read: Facts About Bones: What’s Your Bone IQ?

How Can I Tell if It’s a Sprain or a Fracture?

It’s not always easy to tell if you have a sprain or a frac­ture since they have sim­i­lar symp­toms. If your ankle looks deformed or bones appear to be pop­ping out, it’s like­ly a frac­ture. But if swelling is the only vis­i­ble symp­tom, it could be either.

A sprain won’t show up on an X‑ray, since X‑rays pro­duce images of bones rather than lig­a­ments. An X‑ray is used to rule out a frac­ture, rather than to find a sprain.

Learn about imag­ing procedures.

Are Ankle Sprains and Frac­tures Treat­ed the Same Way?

Over­all, treat­ment is dif­fer­ent for the two injuries.

Sprains don’t always require med­ical care. If you don’t have severe pain, you can start with the R.I.C.E. method.

In most cas­es, you can man­age pain with over-the-counter med­ica­tions, like ibupro­fen (Advil), naprox­en sodi­um (Aleve), or aceta­minophen (Tylenol).

Frac­tures, on the oth­er hand, always require some degree of med­ical care to heal. For small breaks or stress frac­tures, you prob­a­bly won’t need surgery. Your provider may rec­om­mend wear­ing a cast, brace, or walk­ing boot that sup­ports your ankle as you walk. They may also do a pro­ce­dure called closed reduc­tion, where they repo­si­tion bro­ken bones with­out mak­ing any cuts.

In more severe cas­es or if bones have been moved out of place, you might require surgery. After per­form­ing an open reduc­tion, the sur­geon will secure the pieces of your bro­ken bones and hold them in place with rods, screws, or oth­er fas­ten­ers (inter­nal fixation).

What Type of Provider Should I See?

It depends on the type and sever­i­ty of your injury.

For a sprain, you might not need to see a provider at all. If the pain and swelling don’t get bet­ter with self-care, or if you’re hav­ing trou­ble walk­ing, sched­ule an appoint­ment with your provider.

If you have a severe sprain, you sus­pect a frac­tured ankle, or you’re not sure which type of injury you have, it’s best to get imme­di­ate or emer­gency care. Be on the look­out for signs that you need care right away:

• Severe pain or swelling, espe­cial­ly if it starts right after an injury
• Inabil­i­ty to put weight on your foot
• Symp­toms of an infec­tion, such as changes in skin col­or or a fever over 100 degrees Fahrenheit 
• An open wound or one where the bone is stick­ing out
• A vis­i­bly deformed ankle
• Pain that doesn’t go away and keeps get­ting worse

In some cas­es, you may need spe­cial­ty care. For exam­ple, you may need to see an ortho­pe­dist (provider who spe­cial­izes in bone care) or an ortho­pe­dic sur­geon for a severe injury. You might also need to work with a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist or sports med­i­cine provider to regain strength and help your ankle heal.

Also read: Know­ing Where to Go for Care: The South Bend Clin­ic Imme­di­ate Care Centers

I Don’t Have a Sprain or Frac­ture. What Else Could Be Caus­ing My Ankle Pain?

Ankle pain doesn’t just stem from a sprain or a frac­ture. Oth­er pos­si­ble caus­es include:

• Ankle strain (an injury to mus­cles and tendons)
• Plan­tar fasciitis
• A bro­ken foot
• Rup­ture of the Achilles tendon
• Gout
• Ten­donitis
• Arthri­tis

Don’t let ankle pain keep you side­lined any longer. Get­ting the right care quick­ly can make all the dif­fer­ence in your recov­ery time and long-term mobil­i­ty. If you’re expe­ri­enc­ing severe pain, swelling, or can’t put weight on your ankle, vis­it a South Bend Clin­ic Imme­di­ate Care Cen­ter today. The cur­rent wait times for our Imme­di­ate Care loca­tions are avail­able online. Our expe­ri­enced providers can assess your injury and pro­vide imme­di­ate treat­ment with no appoint­ment need­ed. 

For per­sis­tent ankle issues or advanced treat­ment needs, sched­ule an appoint­ment with one of our ortho­pe­dic spe­cial­ists. They pro­vide com­pre­hen­sive eval­u­a­tion, advanced imag­ing, and per­son­al­ized treat­ment plans to get you back to the activ­i­ties you love. Take action now and give your ankles the expert care they deserve.