Comparison of the Goal-Oriented Movements Between Healthy and Injured Leg in Patients with a Unilateral Ankle Sprain

Background: Balance assessment is a very important part of rehabilitation for people with unilateral ankle sprain. Biodex balance analyzer is one of the devices used for assessing balance. Using oriented movements is a method of this device, thus we decided to compare these movements in both healthy and unhealthy feet. Methods: This article was a cross sectional study. In this study 35 men and women aged from 19 - 34 with unilateral ankle sprain were participated. First they stood on one leg on the Biodex device with open eyes and were then asked to look at the screen in front of them and move the cursor to specific points on the screen and with due to attention to the time and overall points, the device allocated a number to each foot, which a shorter time and straighter path leaded to better results. Results: The results showed a significant difference between the healthy and injured legs of the participants in terms of the overall score of the stability index, especially, in the anterior, medial and lateral points (P < 0.05). Conclusions: According to the results, that the goal-oriented movements in the anterior, medial, and lateral directions in the injured leg are significantly different from the healthy leg, it can be assumed that these directions are more affected in the injured leg. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to the injured directions in the retraining and rehabilitation programs of patients with lateral ankle sprains.