Objective: To compare the effects of ankle integral and conventional physiotherapy on pain, range of motion, balance, disability, and treatment effectiveness in patients with chronic ankle instability (CAI).
Design: Two-arm, parallel-group, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.
Participants: 60 patients with unilateral CAI.
Intervention: integral physiotherapy (n = 30) or conventional physiotherapy (n = 30).
Outcomes: Visual Analog Scale (VAS), dorsiflexion and plantarflexion range of motion, Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT), Single Leg Hop (SLH) test, Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS), Lower Extremity Functional Score (LEFS), global rating of change, were gathered pre and post-intervention.
Results: The ANOVA results revealed statistically significant interaction for FAOS, and LEFS outcome measures (P < 0.05) and the mean change results showed there were a favorable clinical difference incline toward the integral group (meanintegral = 20.14 (14.95-25.37), meanConventional = 29.46 (24.09-34.83)). There were no interactions between group and time among other outcome measures (P > 0.05). The group main effect did not show any statistical significance (P > 0.05).
Conclusion: Hip strengthening and balance exercises added to ankle rehabilitation could be more favorable on improving the patients' functional ability.
Keywords: ankle sprain; hip strengthening; physiotherapy; randomized control trial.