Sprain or fracture?

[Digby]

What is the main difference in the first aid treatment of a sprained ankle and a fracture?

a. You should try to 'set' a fractured ankle.
b. If it is just a sprain, the patient should be encouraged to walk on it to keep it flexible.
c. A sprain should be kept warm, a fracture should be cooled down.
d. The opposite of (c.)
e. There is no difference in the first aid treatment.









Choose your answer then scroll down to see what other people say. This forum is no substitute for professional first aid training - so get yourself off and get trained!

[Scott]

e

RICE

[timmygowalkies]

ditto^^^^

[insane_climber]

without xrays you cant tellthe diference, if you aply an ice pack and the pain starts to go its genral a sprain, if the pain does not go or gets worse its a fracture or you have a strange patien who will respond incorectly to all treatment

[Marmot]

I damaged my ankle last year playing ultimate, jumping and landing badly on a turned ankle.
Having never really damaged myself before i just assumed it was a sprain and preceded to ice and leave it - spent a few months playing on it gently but it would still hurt, saw a doctor and they said to rest it further
still had limited mobility, and it would take ages to warm up and would "cool" quickly and stiffen after use.
had an xray the other day - pretty much a year later - to discover that the force of the impact had knocked the tibia of the leg into the talus of the foot and taken a lump out of the bone. this had healed badly and so caused rubbing when i walk and also limited flexibility
- have key hole surgery booked over xmas to sort it out - but does mean will be in a cast for 4 weeks.

- anyway, now that ive been injured this way i'll know what to look out for in others and myself in the future - but its not until youve had experience yourself that youd be able to make any sort of informed diagnostic

[MariaD]

Different part of the body, but not getting my hip injury sorted out soon enough (partly because of the enormous wait for an NHS physio, partly because I dismissed it for a few months as 'just a small knock') has meant that I still have significant mobility & flexibility problems in that area. The only thing I can do about it now is carry on exercising & stretching to improve it, but being able to tell that there was a serious problem straight away would have helped.