Does the rupture of the deep layer of deltoid ligament affect the mid-term clinical efficacy of prona-tion-external rotation ankle fracture / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore whether the deep deltoid ligament (DL) rupture affects the mid-term clinical efficacy of pronation-external rotation (PER) ankle fracture or not.Methods:A ret-rospective study was conducted to analyze the clinical data of 50 patients with ankle fracture of PER type Ⅲ or Ⅳ who had been treated at Department of Orthopedic Trauma, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital from January 2013 to December 2014.They were 37 males and 13 females with an average age of 30.2 years(from 16 to 68 years). According to their type of medial ankle injury, the patients were divided into 2 groups.The experimental group, consisting of 28 patients with deep DL rupture but no medial ankle fracture, did not undergo DL repair operation; the control group, consisting of 22 patients with supracollicular medial malleolar (SMM) fracture but no deep DL rupture, underwent open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) for SMM.Both groups were treated with ORIF of fibular fracture in addition to syndesmosis screw fixation.The 2 groups were compared in terms of the medial malleolus space and distal tibiofibular space on the imaging exams at more than 6 months, and the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hindfoot scores and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores at the mid-term follow-ups.Results:The differences between the 2 groups in gender, age and mode of concomitant subluxation or dislocation were statistically significant ( P<0.05), but there were no sig-nificant differences between the 2 groups in injury violence, height of fibular fracture line, presence of total dis-location, rate of posterior malleolus fracture, rate of posterior malleolus fixation, implant removal, or operation time ( P>0.05).Imaging exams were conducted for 38 patients at 6 or more months after surgery.The medial malleolus space was 3.7 mm and the distal tibiofibular space 4.5 mm for the 21 cases in the experimental group; the medial malleolus space was 3.4 mm and the distal tibiofibular space 4.4 mm for the 17 cases in the control group.The 3-year follow-up AOFAS scores of the experimental group and the control group were 98.3 and 94.6 respectively; VAS scores were 0.4 and 1.5; the 5-year follow-up AOFAS scores of the experimental group and the control group were 97.1 and 93.6 respectively,and VAS scores were 0.5 and 1.2 respectively.Logistic regression analysis of ordered multi-classification showed that the AOFAS and VAS scores at 3-year and 5-year follow-ups had no significant correlation with the deep DL rupture for the patients<45 years old( P>0.05).Patient age was correlated with the 5-year follow-up AOFAS scores ( P=0.021). Conclusion:In ankle fracture of PER type Ⅲ or Ⅳ treated with lateral malleolar and syndesmosis screw fixation, nonoperative treatment of the deep DL rupture may not influence the mid-term clinical efficacy for the patients less than 45 years old.