I sprained my ankle. It's been three days now, and it hasn't fallen much. On the contrary, the more I look at it, the more swollen it becomes.

Ankle sprain, medically known as ligament injury, usually takes about half a month to reduce swelling and more than one and a half months to fully recover.

First of all, after the injury, you should avoid continuing to carry weight or walk, and avoid being rubbed by peers in the painful local area.

You can use bandage or wide adhesive tape to bind and fix the position of slight eversion after 90-degree back flexion of the affected ankle, restrict walking, and send it to hospital for treatment.

Second, the correct use of hot compress and cold compress.

For those with mild symptoms, cold water or cold towel can be applied externally after the injury, and the affected limb can be raised. At this time, cold compress can make blood vessels contract, reduce local congestion, lower tissue temperature, and play a role in hemostasis, detumescence and analgesia. Therefore, local cold compress should be carried out after acute sprain, and the sooner the better. Raising the affected limb can accelerate the return of blood and lymph, so as to avoid blood stasis when blood vessels are injured.

Cold compress method: put the towel soaked in cold water on the injured part and change it every 3 minutes or put it in a plastic bag filled with ice cubes for external application for 20 ~ 30 minutes each time. In summer, tap water can be used for flushing, and the flushing time is generally about 4 ~ 5 minutes, which should not be too long.

If the ankle sprain has been more than 24 hours, you should switch to hot compress therapy. At this time, hot compress can improve the circulation of blood and lymph, which is beneficial to the absorption of congestion and exudate in the wound.

Hot compress method: put a towel soaked in hot water or hot vinegar on the wound, and replace it after 5 ~ 10 minutes when the towel is not hot. Every day 1 ~ 2 times, hot compress for about 30 minutes each time.

Third, joint sprain should be treated in time, and the principle is braking, detumescence and removing blood stasis, so that the damaged tissue can be well repaired. Those with excessive joint bleeding should be removed in time under aseptic technique to avoid intra-articular adhesion. If ligament rupture or avulsion fracture affects joint stability, surgical reduction and repair are needed to avoid repeated sprain, articular cartilage injury and traumatic arthritis.