Secondary School Athletic Trainers’ Documentation Strategies and Clinical Management of Acute Lateral Ankle Sprains

An abstract of the study by Vallandingham et al determining current treatment strategies for acute LAS as documented in electronic medical record (EMR). Results show that within the diagnosis section, documentation for best practice guidelines were low with 27.1% of EMRs indicating passive range of motion was assessed. A majority of EMRs (77.6%) indicated the clinician palpated key structures, and performed the anterior drawer test, respectively. A majority of EMRs (73.6%) reported the use of the inversion talar tilt test. The reported diagnosis of the patient in the EMR included grade 1-61.7%, grade 2-18.7%, and grade 3-1.9% LASs. Within the treatment section, EMRs reported that clinicians utilized common interventions at a variable frequency cryotherapy (82.2%), compression (55.1%), and elevation (46.7%). Rehabilitation strategies, outcome measures, and return to play plans were all underreported or not performed.