Diagnosis and Management of Suspected Deltoid Injury / 대한족부족관절학회지

ABSTRACT

When an ankle lateral malleolar fracture is accompanied by a deltoid ligament rupture without a medial malleolar fracture, such an injury is called a bimalleolar equivalent fracture. This means that even if there is no bony injury on the medial side, there may be functional instability of the ankle joint due to damage to the deltoid ligament. Manual or gravity external rotational stress radiography is used to differentiate an ankle bimalleolar equivalent fracture from an isolated lateral malleolar fracture. If the medial joint gap is widened on the stress radiography, the deltoid ligament injury can be diagnosed, and surgical treatment for fibula fractures is recommended. After open reduction of the fibula fracture (with syndesmotic fixation if needed), a decision on the repair of the deltoid ligament is taken depending on the surgeons’ preference and intraoperative findings. The deltoid ligament repair is performed by inserting a suture anchor (or anchors) in the medial malleolus and fixing the deep and superficial deltoid ligaments to the medial malleolus. The only randomized study to evaluate the utility of deltoid ligament sutures in ankle fractures did not support the deltoid ligament suture, but the study itself had many limitations. An appropriately powered, randomized, controlled trial of the deltoid ligament repair with both patient-reported outcome and radiographic outcome evaluation is needed in the future.