The short and intermediate effect of manipulation on chronic ankle instability syndrome

Abstract

Following an inversion ankle joint sprain, damage to the proprioceptive organs can occur, which is made worse by lack of proprioceptive retraining and will increase the chances of re-injury (Hoffman and Payne 1995:144 and Anderson, 2002).

Pellow and Brantingham (2001) indicated that patients who received multiple manipulations improved more rapidly than patients in the placebo group.

Therefore it is proposed that manipulation provokes changes in afferent input that may restore normal proprioceptive input (Slosberg, 1988). However, Pellow and Brantingham (2001) were not able to establish what effect multiple manipulations had, as opposed to a single manipulation, on the proprioception on the foot and ankle complex and how this may influence the clinical outcome of the patient’s treatment.

Therefore, it was hypothesized that multiple manipulations of the foot and ankle complex would have a greater effect on chronic ankle instability syndrome than a single treatment in terms of overall improvement subjectively and objectively.

In addition to this the following was also hypothesized: • That multiple manipulations of the foot and ankle complex would increase the ROM to a greater extent than single manipulations. • That multiple manipulations would decrease point tenderness more effectively than a single manipulation.