What can cause sudden ankle swelling and pain?

Question

Hello doctor,

The patient's left leg is swollen at the ankle with severe pain at the joint for the past 10 days. He is unable to walk regularly as before. He has taken antibiotics and still the pain remains the same. The patient has done an X-ray and blood test and everything seems to be fine. There is no accident or any hit there. He used to go for an evening walk daily for around 3 to 5 km. These symptoms started 10 days ago. The patient is 61 years old, has gastric issues, and has undergone stomach surgery twice. Please advise me on how to deal with his health issue.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I guess you are talking about your father here in this query. Acute or sudden onset of ankle pain in a 61 year old male, who was previously healthy, can be due to many reasons such as:

Cellulitis.
Ankle sprain.
Tendinitis.
Synovitis of the ankle joint.
Retrocalcaneal bursitis.
Fracture.

To arrive at a provisional diagnosis kindly answer these questions. Any history of joint pains in family? Is there any swelling or pain in other body joint? Does he have pain at single part of joint or a diffuse pain over the joint? Is there any redness or excruciating pain in just touching the ankle joint? Is there any history of fever? Has he lost weight recently or does not feel like eating? For what condition has he undergone gastric surgery? Please provide clinical notes or prescriptions along with blood reports and X-ray.

Thank you.