- Ankle swelling:
Have a symptom?
See what questions
a doctor would ask.
See what questions
a doctor would ask.
During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques to assess the symptom: Ankle swelling. These will include a physical examination and possibly diagnostic tests. (Note: A physical exam is always done, diagnostic tests may or may not be performed depending on the suspected condition) Your doctor will ask several questions when assessing your condition. It is important to openly share any pertinent information to help your doctor make an accurate diagnosis.
It is also very important to bring an up-to-date list of all of your all medical conditions, medications including dosages, and names of numbers of any specialist you see.
Create your printable checklist by answering questions that your doctor may ask below:
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Why: to establish if acute or chronic.
Why: may indicate ankle sprain or fracture.
Why: If single joint may indicate that ankle pain is from a local condition; if many joints involved many indicate part of a generalized disease e.g. Rheumatoid arthritis.
Why: Ankle edema is usually worse in the evenings, with improvement during the night.
Why: Of psoriasis, chronic diarrhea, colitis, urethritis or iritis may indicate arthritic cause of ankle swelling.
Why: Of Congestive cardiac failure, liver cirrhosis, renal disease, deep venous thrombosis and hypothyroidism may indicate cause of ankle edema.
Why: may increase risk of deep venous thrombosis.
Why: may indicate increased risk of gout or cirrhosis.
Why: some diseases with chronic arthritis run in families including Rheumatoid arthritis , the seronegative spondyloarthropathies and inflammatory bowel disease.
Why: diuretics can aggravate gout, contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy can increase the risk of Deep venous thrombosis.
Why: This may be an indication of some joint trauma or inflammatory disease process, e.g., gout.
Why: Ankle swelling which fluctuates over a long period of time is more indicative of circulatory dysfunction, or of a chronic systemic inflammatory condition.
Why: Ankle swelling of recent onset is more likely to be as a result of a trauma, acute inflammation, or it may be the result of acute heart failure.
Why: Whilst also causing ankle swelling, heart failure can also result in enlargement of your liver (hepatomegaly) as well as the collection of fluid in your abdominal/peritoneal cavity (ascites). Even if you feel that your abdomen hasn't drastically changed in size recently, in retrospect you may have noticed some increase in the size of your abdomen over a long period of time.
Why: Heart failure may also result in shortness of breath.
Why: Your Health Professional may enquire about how much activity you can do before you begin to have any change in your breathing. This may seem trivial but it gives some indication of the current severity of any heart failure that you may have, and it may also give an indication of your current functional state, i.e., do you require more help than usual o complete your activities of daily living.
Why: Ankle swelling caused by peripheral oedema may become severe and result in the leakage of interstitial fluid through otherwise minor cuts/abrasions.
Why: Heart Failure can result in the accumulation of excess fluid in tissues where it would not otherwise normally collect. This fluid accumulation can result in ankle swelling as well as abnormal fluid accumulation in the lungs (pulmonary oedema). Pulmonary oedema can cause cough, and in acute circumstances may result in frothy (sometimes pink-tinged) whitish sputum. At the same time heart failure can result in a wheeze similar to that experienced with asthma.
Why: This is a symptom which in combination with fluctuating ankle swelling can indicate early heart failure.
Why: These are conditions which can cause very painful joint swelling (including the ankles) as a result of abnormal crystal deposition in and around the joint.
Why: These can indicate some dysfunction of the veins of your lower limb, and may explain coexistent ankle swelling.
Why: Some medications such as some antihypertensives can result in ankle swelling or worsened heart failure symptoms.
Why: This can be a cause of heart failure and some instances of ankle swelling.
Why: Chronic and excessive consumption of alcohol can cause problems with many body systems, such as your heart. Alcoholism can cause heart failure via an alcoholic cardiomyopathy which can lead to ankle swelling.
Why: Chronically this can be a cause of heart failure. Ankle swelling and chronic hypertension may lead your health professional to suspect a diagnosis of heart failure.
Why: Ineffective function of your kidneys can prevent your body from being able to normally excrete fluids and metabolites. This can result in an excess of body fluid can create much more work for your heart to do. Over a long period of time (or in severe acute renal failure) this can cause heart failure and ankle swelling.
Why: These are all conditions which can cause your heart to have to do more work than normal, and so cause heart failure. Anemia can mean your blood is less able to carry oxygen, and so your heart will work harder to provide enough oxygen to your tissues. An overactive thyroid gland can excite your heart and make it work so hard that it "decompensates", or ceases to be able to function normally. A heart murmur can cause abnormalities of how blood flows through your heart, and so some areas of your heart have to pump increased volumes of blood. This can put undue strain on some parts of the heart and cause it to fail.
Why: Unilateral ankle/leg swelling can be caused by Deep Vein Thrombosis.
Why: establish if acute or chronic, when pain is worse.
Why: Stiffness is worse after periods of rest in Osteoarthritis and worse first thing in the morning with rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory arthropathies.
Why: may indicate fracture or dislocation.
Why: may indicate nerve damage due to ankle fracture.
Why: may indicate Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus.
Why: may indicate psoriatic arthritis, Reiter's disease and enteropathic arthritis.
Why: may indicate Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Why: may indicate enteropathic arthritis (e.g. Ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease) or Reiter's syndrome.
Why: may be associated with septic arthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Why: may indicate psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus.
Why: may indicate Reiter's syndrome.
Why: e.g. shortness of breath on exertion - may indicate cause of ankle edema.
Why: may suggest venous incompetence and possible cause of ankle edema.
Why: may indicate possible deep vein thrombosis as cause of ankle edema.
Why: e.g. intolerance to cold, weight gain, constipation - may indicate possible cause of ankle edema.
The following list of conditions have 'Ankle swelling' or similar listed as a symptom in our database. This computer-generated list may be inaccurate or incomplete. Always seek prompt professional medical advice about the cause of any symptom.
Select from the following alphabetical view of conditions which include a symptom of Ankle swelling or choose View All.
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