Abstract

A questionnaire was sent to 2439 a selected participants in playsports like volleyball, basketball, handball, indoor- and field football to obtain information about the use of ankle-bandages and sustained ankle injuries in the past. The response was 51 and it was equally distributed over the selected sports. 23 of the responders reported that they consequently applied a bandage to one or both ankles during exercise. The major reason for the use of the bandage was the prevention of former ankle injuries. That personal aim reported by the subject was confirmed by the strong positive relationship between the use of bandages and the inventarisation of sustained ankle injuries in the ongoing sport season and in the preceding years. Despite the use of a bandage the incidence of ankle injuries appeared to be considerably higher in the group concerned than in the group of non-users. The most likely explanation for this finding is the difference in susceptibility to ankle injuries between both groups. Anyhow, the application of an ankle-bandage has not revealed an effective compensation for this difference in susceptibility. The high percentage recidive-injuries (31) is a confirmation of the impression from the practice of sports and in the emergency department of hospitals concerning victims of sports injuries. However, to what extent the eventually remaining tissue damage after trauma of constitutional factors are involved in the injury-proness is unexplored. Verf.-Referat