Effects of recurrent lateral ankle sprains on active and passive judgements of joint position

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of recurrent lateral ankle sprains on subjects' active and passive judgments of joint position. Fourteen subjects with recurrent unilateral ankle sprains contributed data to two groups: 1) In Group 1, the subjects' 14 sprained ankles were tested and 2) in Group 2, the same 14 subjects' contralateral nonsprained ankles were tested. An additional seven subjects with no history of injury to either ankle comprised Group 3 with 14 nonsprained control ankles. The experimenter tested all blindfolded subjects with active and passive attempts at replicating predetermined ankle joint positions in the inversion-eversion range of motion. An isokinetic dynamometer measured joint position. A two-way analysis of variance indicated no significant effect caused by ankle injury or noninjury. Passive judgments were significantly better than active judgments of joint position (p less than .01) in the nonsprained control group. The results suggest that joint receptors play a dominant role in joint angle detection and that muscle receptors are more valuable in the perception of joint movement.