A Meta-analysis of treatment methods for acute ankle sprain

Objectives: To conduct a Meta analysis with 12 related published studies to compare the effect of operative and conventional treatment for acute ankle sprain. Methodology: A systematic research on the published paper was conducted for randomized controlled trial studies. Three data bases were searched, including Pubmed, EMbase and ISI web of Knowledge, and we compared the efficacy of two treatment methods, operative treatment and functional treatment, for acute ruptures of lateral ankle. A total of 15 related RCT studies were included in our study. RevMan software was taken to analyze the data. Results: The 15 studies involved 1413 mostly young adults, 665 of them received surgical treatment, while 748 received conventional treatment. The results showed surgical treatment is more beneficial as compared to conventional treatment in terms of ankle activity and instability, with the OR(95%CI) of 5.15 (1.06-25.03) and 1.72 (1.31-2.26), respectively. However, the surgical treatment was accompanied with great risk of complication, including DVT, tenderness of scar, sensory loss and wound infection or necrosis. Conclusion: Surgical treatment is better than the conventional treatment alone, especially for the outcome of the ankle activity and instability. Further high quality randomized controlled trials are required.