J Korean Fract Soc.  1999 Oct;12(4):956-960.

Surgical Treatment of the Bimalleolar Ankle Fractures

• Song KJ
• Yang KH
• Lee KR
• Lee JH
• Hwang BY

Abstract

We designed this study to evaluate the functional outcome and to suggest the guidelines in the treatment of bilnalleolar ankle fractures with clinical and radiological analysis after operative treatment. We analyzed 35 patients with bimalleolar fractures among 90 ankle fractures and followed up for more than 1 year. All 36 fractures were classified according to Lauge-Hansen system and the Meyer criteria was used for the clinical and radiological assessment. Seventeen cases(47%) were supination-external rotation(47%), 9 cases(21%) were supination- adduction: 6 cases(17%) were pronation-abduction and 4 cases(11%) were pronation-external rotation type. Satisfactory results was obtained in 32 cases(89%) according to the criteria of Meyer in the viewpoint of clinical and radiological analysis. Satisfactory results could be obtained with early anatomical reduction and rigid internal fixation for the treatment of bimalleolar ankle fractures. Distal tibiofibular syndesmosis disruption could be spontaneously reduced without trans-syndesmotic screw fixation by early open reduction and rigid internal fixation for the bimalleolar ankle fractures. Early and more accurate anatomical reduction can reduce the post-traumatic arthritis in cases with moderate talar displacement and open fractures.

Keyword

ankle bimalleolar fracture; anatomical reduction; rigid fixation

MeSH Terms

Ankle Fractures*
Ankle Joint
Arthritis
Fractures, Open
Humans