Fibular posterolateral approach and minimally invasive percutaneous plate osteosynthesis for treatment of type A3 distal tibiofibular fractures / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To report the treatment of type A3 distal tibiofibular fractures with the fibular posterolateral approach and minimally invasive percutaneous plate osteosynthesis (MIPPO).Methods We reviewed 61 patients with type A3 distal tibiofibular fracture (observation group) who had been treated with MIPPO and the fibular posterolateral approach from June 2011 to May 2015.Our control group included 78 patients with type A3 distal tibiofibular fracture who had been treated by traditional open reduction and internal fixation from April 2009 to September 2013.Interval between injury and surgery,surgical time,intraoperative bleeding,hospital stay,postoperative complications,X-ray Lane-Sandhu osteotylus score and limb weight-bearing score one year after operation were compared between the 2 groups.Results All the 139 patients were followed up for more than one year.There were significant differences between the 2 groups in terms of interval between injury and surgery (8.0 ± 3.5 h versus 140.7 ± 52.4 h),surgical time (66.2 ± 7.2 min versus 92.1 ±6.6 min),intraoperative bleeding (59.8 ± 12.8 mL versus 209.5 ±50.4 mL),hospital stay (9.4 ± 1.9 d versus 26.1 ± 15.7 d),postoperative complications,X-ray Lane-Sandhu osteotylus score (3.9 ±0.2 points versus 3.0 ±0.6 points) and limb weight-bearing score (3.9 ±0.1 points versus 3.0 ±0.7 points) one year after operation,favoring the observation group(P ＜ 0.001).Conclusions In the treatment of type A3 tibiofibular fractures,MIPPO plus the fibular posterolateral approach is superior to the traditional open reduction and internal fixation because it can benefit fracture healing by shortening the time for preoperative preparation,surgery and hospitalization,and decreasing the amount of intraoperative bleeding and the incidence of postoperative complications.