A Clinical Study of the Adolescent ankle Fracture / 대한정형외과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

The distal tibial physes begins its closure about 18 months prior to complete cessation of the tibial growth, closing first in its midportion, then medially, and finally, laterally. So the patterns of the ankle fracture during this period would be different from those of the adult or the children before this period. During the six year period from 1983 to 1988 at the department of orthopedic surgery, college of medi-cine, Hallym University, we found and analysed 54 adolescent patients with the ankle fracture which developed before the closure of the distal tibial growth plate, which were followed up more than 1 year. The results were as follows 1. During the 6 year period of this study, the adolescent ankle fracture comprise 4.4% (54 cases) of all the ankle fractures(1158 cases). Injury occurred more often in male than in female(44 versus 10). The mean age was 13.7 years. 2. The most common cause of injury was traffic accident being in 26 cases(48.1%), the next was slip down accident in 11 cases, and the third was sports activity in 10 cases. 3. The incidence of the adoescent ankle fractures using the Salter-Harris classification revealed 20 (37%) type II, 7 (13%) type III, 5 (9.3%) type IV, and 4 (7.4%) type I and that using the Dias and Tachdjian classification revealed 14 (25.9%) Supination-Inversion, 10 (18.5%) Supination-External rotation, 7 (12.7%) Pronation-Eversion-External rotation, and 1 (1.9%) no adjustable fracture. There were 9 (16.7%) Tillaux and 9 (16.7%) triplane fractures, which were belonged to both classifications 4. The treatments performed were closed reduction and cast immobilization for 28 cases (51.9 %), open reduction and internal fixation for 20 cases (37%), and closed reduction and percutaneous pinning for 6 cases. 5. There were complications experienced in 9 cases, which were 3 premature epiphyseal closure, 3 joint surface incongruity, 2 angular deformity, and 1 leg shortening. 6. For the prevention of the complication, the treatment of the adolecsent ankle fracture should be treated like as adult fracture.