Ankle Special Tests

We started off this semester by learning about the anatomy of the ankle. Every muscle, ligament, and bone was learned before we even started on ankle special tests. After everyone in the class had a good grasp on the anatomy of the ankle, Mrs. Snodgrass taught us the ankle special tests. There are 7 special tests; bump, squeeze, anterior drawer, talar tilt, Tinel's sign, Kleiger's, and Thompson. As someone who normally doesn't struggle with memorization, it came as a shock that I wasn't able to remember these as easily. The next time we used these skills was in SIM lab with Mrs. Bacon. There was clear ecchymosis along with edema, and there was severe pain when doing the anterior drawer test. This showed that it was an inversion ankle sprain and that the anterior talofibular ligament was sprained. Most likely it was 2nd degree due to the amount of edema, and the fact that it was very little weight bearing. In this SIM lab I performed a couple of the tests as well as helping with some of the treatments at the end (ice, compression wrap). At this point my skills were still a little shaky, but definitely a lot better.

The activity we did that actually really helped was the ankle special test video that we created. In that video we did all 7 special tests on a partner (5 of the tests bilaterally), and explained the different ligaments we were testing and what it would diagnose. It was basically a mock of what we were going to do for our assessment, it was as really helpful tool for memorization. About a week or so after that is when the ankle special test practical exam was. I was the first one to go, and I felt like it went really well. I covered everything I needed to and I felt really solid about it. Most of the time with memorization for me, I learn it and then forget it a week later, but this time I'm not forgetting, and it's actually helping with the knee special tests because a couple of them are very similar. I even have used these skills to help figure out what was wrong with a girl at dance's ankle. She had an inversion ankle sprain (1st degree), so I taped it up and she did RICE for the next few days and she feels a lot better. It was super cool to use those skills outside of class, and I know I'll benefit from these skills for a while.